PKilevdclpKiec 
CK^Pcnix  PublUKirvg     Compaq 


Copyright  1900  by   imk  Penn  Publishing  Company 


£duc-  Psych. 
Librarx 

V 

CONTENTS. 


OHAPTER  PAGH 

I.  Historical a 

II.  Implements 26 

III.  Educational 40 

IV.  Links 80 

V.  Golfers  and  Styles. 102 

VI.  Match  Play 120 

VII.  Handicapping 125 

VIII.  The  Rules 157 

IX.  Etiquette  of  Golf 172 

Glossary 174 


.1.31  £ 


GOLF 


CHAPTER  I 

HISTORICAL 

"When  Scotland  gave  to  England  the  rather 
dubious  blessing  of  her  Scottish  kings,  she  gave 
therewith  a  gift  which  was  an  undoubted  boon : 
the  game  of  golf.  For  very  many  years  England 
was  more  blind  to  the  merits  of  the  game  than 
of  the  Stuarts.  The  Scottish  Court,  taking  its 
country  leisure  at  Greenwich,  recreated  itself  for 
the  toils  of  government  by  playing  golf  on  Black- 
heath.  If  Blackheath  was  as  flinty  then  as  it  is 
to-day,  that  fact  may  partly  excuse  and  explain 
their  governing  so  badly. 

It  does  not  seem,  however,  that  golf  was  of  in- 
digenous growth  in  Scotland.  So  far  back  as  the 
date  of  James  VI.,  we  find  an  Act  of  the  Scottish 
Parliament  forbidding  the  importation  of  Dutch- 

5 


6  ooir 

made  golf-halls  as  injurious  to  native  industry. 
This  stringent  protectionist  measure  shows  that 
the  game  must  have  been  largely  cultivated  by 
the  Mynheers,  but  its  records  are  hard  to  trace. 
Here  and  there  wo  come  on  a  picture — there  is 
one  by  Van  der  Veldt  in  the  National  Gallery — 
or  od  an  old  Dutch  tile,  representing  the  game, 
usually  on  the  ice.  But  this  was  not  an  exclu- 
sively glacial  epoch  of  the  game,  for  there  is  an 
account,  often  quoted  before,  in  an  old  book 
named  u  Les  Contes  du  Eoi  Cambrinus,"  by  one 
Charles  Deulin,  of  a  game  named  chole, a  bastard 
species  of  golf  played  in  French  Flanders,  lie 
represents  it  as  a  wry  popular  game.  In  his  tale 
one  Roger,  a  wheelwright,  is  so  great  a  player 
that  in  all  the  country  round  he  is  known  aa  "  le 
grand  choleur."  But  we  cannot  think  that  he 
exactly  played  the  game,  for  he  had  a  wonderful 
el iih  given  him  by  no  less  a  person  than  St.  An- 
tony. St.  Antony  was  thus  generous  in  return 
for  some  small  matter  of  smith's  work  which 
Roger  did  for  him,  and  besides  giving  him  the 
wonderful  elnb,  he  granted  him  two  boons — one, 
thai  n<>  <>'  •  who  s;it  on  the  stump  of  the  elm  tree 
in  front  of  nit  hy  should  be  able  to  move  \\  it  h- 

ont  his  leave*,  and  the  other,  that  no  one  who 
stood  on  ;i  certain  square  patch  of  carpet  should 


Historical  7 

be  moved  therefrom  against  his  will.  So  Roger 
beat  every  one  at  chole,  including  the  Devil,  from 
whom  he  won  a  whole  sackful  of  souls.  When 
death  at  length  came  for  Roger,  the  "  grand 
choleur  "  asked  the  monarch  to  take  a  seat  for  a 
moment  on  the  elm  trunk — whence  he  did  not 
permit  him  to  stir  until  he  had  covenanted  for  a 
hundred  years  longer  of  life.  So  again  he  golfed 
and  beat  all  comers.  When  the  hundred  years 
were  up  Death  called  again  and  took  Roger  with 
him  to  Purgatory.  Here  the  Devil  declined  to 
receive  one  whom  he  knew  so  well.  "  Why," 
said  Diabolos,  "  he  would  depopulate  my  king- 
dom. He  has  won  heaps  of  souls  from  me 
already."  Death  was  much  perplexed  where  to 
bestow  Roger.  The  latter  suggested  that  they 
should  try  heaven.  Death  laughed,  but  said  it 
was  no  harm  trying,  though  he  was  sure  Roger 
Id  not  be  admitted.  St.  Peter  supported 
Death's  view,  when  they  arrived  at  the  portal, 
but  as  a  favor  allowed  Roger  to  come  inside  the 
gate  for  a  moment  in  order  to  talk  to  St.  Antony, 
whereupon  Roger  clapped  down  his  square  of 
carpet,  and  since  they  could  not  move  him  they 
wore  forced  to  let  him  stay. 

Perhaps  this  account  may  not  be  strictly  accu- 
rate, but  it  is  remarkable  as  describing  a  game 


S  Golf 

which  is  clearly  a  transition  phase  between 
hockey  and  golf.  Chole,  in  fact,  is  a  sort  of 
missing  link.  It  proceeded  in  this  fashion.  If 
Tom  Morris  and  Hugh  Kirkaldy  were  ffoins-  to 
play  a  match  at  chole  they  would  first  fix  on 
an  object  which  was  to  be  hit.  A  church  door 
some  live  miles  distant,  cross  country,  seems 
to  have  been  a  favorite  goal.  This  settled  on, 
match-making  began — a  kind  of  game  of  brag, 
"I  will  hack  myself  to  hit  the  thing  in  five 
innings,"  Tom  might  say.  (We  will  explain  in  a 
moment  what  an  "innings"  meant.)  "  Oh,  I'll 
back  myself  to  hit  it  in  four,"  Hugh  might  an- 
swer. tv  Well ;  Til  say  three,  then,"  Tom  might 
perhaps  say,  and  that  might  be  the  finish  of  the 
bragging,  for  Hugh  might  not  feel  it  in  his  power 
to  do  it  in  two,  so  he  must  let  Tom  try.  Then 
Tom  would  hit  oil",  and  when  he  came  to  the  ball 
would  t<ie  it  and  hit  again,  and  so  a  third  time. 
lint  wln-n  they  Peached  the  hall  this  third  time, 
it  would  he  no  longer  Tom's  turn  to  hit,  hut 
Bugh's.  Ih'  would  be  Allowed  to  tee  the  ball  up 
to  dechole,  as  it  was  called  -that,  is  to  say,  to  hit 
it  hack-  again  as  far  as  he  could.     Then  Tom 

would  begin  again  and  have  three  more  shots  to- 
es 

wards  the  object  ;  after  which  Hugh  would  again 

have  one  shot  back.     Then,  if  in  the  course  of  his 


Ibistorical  & 

third  innings  of  three  shots  Tom  were  to  hit  the 
church  door  he  would  win  the  match — if  he  failed, 
he  would  lose  it. 

This  was  the  game,  then,  which  Roger,  by  favor 
of  St.  Antony,  played  so  well.  Both  played  with 
one  ball — there  was  a  choleur  and  a  decholeur; 
a  server  and  a  striker  oat  as  one  might  say — and 
in  this  humorous  tale  (which  we  owe  to  a  transla- 
tion by  Miss  Bruce  in  "Longman's  Magazine") 
we  find  a  very  important  chapter  in  the  history  of 
the  evolution  of  golf.  At  the  club-house  of  the 
Royal  Wimbledon  Golf  Club  there  is  one  of  the 
clubs  which  they  appear  still  to  use  in  Flanders. 
It  looks  as  if  it  were  meant  for  digging  up  whins 
with,  but  Zola  says  that  they  drive  about  four 
hundred  yards  with  these  clubs — he  must  mean 
on  the  ice,  if  he  is  really  a  realist. 

The  history  of  Scottish  golf  is  written  chiefly 
in  terms  of  a  wine  merchant's  catalogue.  There 
are  long  lists  in  the  Club  records  of  magnums  of 
claret  lost  or  won  on  the  links.  Also  its  history 
is  largely  written  in  Sabbatarian  or  patriotic  en- 
actments of  the  Scottish  Parliament.  You  were 
not  to  play  golf  on  a  Sabbath  unless  you  had 
been  to  Church  in  the  morning.  (They  are  not 
so  scrupulous  at  Sandwich  now.)  Altogether 
golf  was  looked  on  with  disfavor  by  the  author- 


10  <3olf 

itieSj  who  deemed  that  "  shooting  at  the  butts  " 
— in  old-fashioned  spelling — was  more  helpful  for 
a  nation's  liberties  than  "golf  and  foot-ball." 
But  golf, like  other  things,  throve  on  persecution. 
It  was  all  very  well  for  parliaments  to  enact  that 
golf  and  foot-ball  be  "  utterly  cryit  down,"  but 
the  Stuart  kings  were  but  the  more  disposed  to 
play  on  that  account — sometimes  in  partnership 
with  humble  men,  such  as  "  one  Patersone,  a 
shoemaker." 

All  this  went  on  before  the  days  of  gutta- 
percha. Men  played  with  "  feather  balls" — that 
is,  balls  of  leather  stufTed  so  tightly  with  feathers 
that  when  taken  out  the  feathers  tilled  a  hat. 
The  makers  used  to  press  the  feathers  in  with  a 
wooden  pin  fastened  in  a  piece  of  board.  They 
pressed  against  the  board  with  their  chests  in 
order  to  cram  the  feathers  in  the  more  tightly. 
It  is  said  that  this  induced  a  pulmonary  com- 
plainl  perhaps  it  would  have  been  better,  after 
all  to  have  let  Dutchmen  make  the  golf-balls. 
Coming  down  to  days  of  which  our  records  are 
more  accurate,  we  find  that  the  feather  golf-balls 
Used  to  cost  four  shillings— a  vast,  sum  in  those 
days.  Men  played  much  with  "  baffy  spoons  " 
made  by  Eugh  Philp,  because  if  y<>u  >pped  a 
ball  with  the  iron,  four   shillings  wei'e  gone  for- 


Historical  11 

ever.  No  man  who  respected  himself  ever  played 
with  a  club  of  another  maker  than  Philp,  nor  in 
less  dignified  clothes  than  a  tall  hat,  swallow- 
tailed  coat  and  knee  breeches.  These  were  the 
days  of  the  grand  old  manner.  They  had  a  cer- 
tain number  of  iron  clubs — one,  certainly,  the 
u  sand  iron  "  as  it  was  called.  It  resembled  the 
heavy  iron  of  to-day,  but  differed  from  it  in 
having  a  concave  face,  like  the  latter-day  niblick, 
or  Park's  patent  lofter.  Specimens  of  strange 
old  golfing  weapons  are  kept  under  a  glass  case 
at  the  Club-house  of  the  Royal  and  Ancient  of 
St.  Andrews.  Of  Scottish  golf,  the  oldest  ade- 
quate records  are  those  of  St.  Andrews,  and  of 
the  Honorable  Company  of  Edinburgh  Golfers 
who  played  at  Musselburgh.  These  courses  must 
have  been  a  great  deal  narrower  then  than  now. 
Trampling  by  the  human  foot  and  attack  by  the 
golfer's  niblick  have  worn  away  the  whins  which 
beset  these  links,  until  they  are  almost  any 
breadth.  AVe  are  told  fearful  tales  of  the  whins 
of  the  past.  Other  evidences  are  not  lacking  of 
the  greater  horrors  of  golf  at  that  epoch.  Tso 
man  would  go  to  theology,  and  waste  his  vocab- 
ularv  now  in  giving  to  the  bunker  which  we  get 
into  going  to  the  long-hole-coming-home  at  St. 
Andrews,  such  a  desperate  name  as  "hell."     Yet 


12  (3olf 

that  is  the  title  by  which  it  is  so  well  known  to 
us,  though  there  is  often  fine  lying  in  the  bottom. 
And  this  name  was  given  before  theologians  had 
done  so  much  as  they  now  have  towards  cooling 
our  conceptions  of  that  undesirable  place.  Pan- 
demonium, at  Musselburgh,  is  still  horrid,  but  no 
one  need  get  into  it.  In  what  we  know  of  the 
golf  of  the  past  Ave  see  several  differences  from 
our  own  golf,  which  no  doubt  have  arisen  from 
the  greater  narrowness  of  courses.  Allen  Robert- 
son, a  small  man,  but  of  little  less  fame  in  golf 
mythology  than  Hercules,  used  habitually  to 
drive  from  the  tee,  going  to  the  heathery  hole 
with  a  short  spoon.  This  took  him  nicely  over 
Walkinshaw's  bunker  and  laid  him  short  of  the 
bunkers  beyond.  But  he  could  scarcely  have  got 
home  with  his  second.  The  methods  to-day  are 
different.  We  drive  to  the  right  or  to  the  left 
of  the  second  lot  of  bunkers  and  so  are  home 
without  trouble  in  two.  In  Allan  Robertson's 
lime  there  were  whins,  both  to  left  and  right, 
and  there  was  but  one  holeoneach  putting-green, 
each  h<>le  being  played  twice — onee  going  out 
and  onee  coming  home.  This  single  instance  is 
an  illustration  of  a  tendency.  All  that  we  have 
from  our  golfing  fore  fathers  —the  dubs  they  used, 
the  predominance  in  their  maxims  of  the  sure 


Historical  13 

over  the  far — everything  goes  to  tell  us  that  golf 
was  a  more  exact  science  then,  that  accuracy  was 
more  precious  then,  as  compared  with  length, 
than  it  is  now.  For  those  clubs  which  Hugh 
Philp  made  so  well  and  which  Allan  Robertson 
played  with  so  well  are  so  light  and  delicate  that 
the  slogging  scratch-player  of  to-day  regards 
them — with  reverence,  it  is  true,  as  curious — but 
as  toys  for  the  practical  uses  of  the  game. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  there  were  very  good 
players  then.  The  role  of  the  laudator  temporis 
acti  is  very  graceful  and  tempting,  but  facts  tell 
us  this — that  Allan  Robertson  was  regarded  as 
the  best  player  of  his  day,  and  that  "  Old  Tom 
Morris,"  who  was  playing  at  the  same  time,  has, 
even  as  an  old  man,  played  very  fine  golf. 
Whether  Allan  was  really  a  finer  player  than 
Tom  is  a  hard  matter  to  decide.  They  played 
no  set  matches,  but  in  their  friendly  matches 
Tom  had  the  better  of  it ;  had  he  had  his  way  he 
would  dearly  have  liked  a  real  set-to  with  Allan. 
"We  can  only  speculate.  Certainly  Allan's  pres- 
tige was  very  great.  Then  George  Glennie's 
score  of  88,  which  for  so  many  years  was  the 
amateurs'  record  in  a  St.  Andrews  competition, 
is  a  figure  which  is  quite  likely  to  win  a  St.  An- 
drews medal  to-day.     It  ought  not  to ;  but  now 


U  Golt 

and  again  it  does.  Of  course  the  lies  are  not 
nearly  so  good  as  they  were  before  there  was  so 
much  play  ;  but  Hugh  Kirkcaldy  cannot  have 
got  into  many  bad  lies  when  he  made  his  record 
round  of  73 — nor  can  Andrew,  his  brother,  when, 
more  recently,  he  did  the  round  in  Ttt.  Be  that 
as  it  may  though,  we  think  most  people  will 
agree  with  us  in  this,  at  all  events — that  amateur 
play  has  much  improved  lately,  as  compared  with 
professional  play.  And  from  the  general  point 
of  view  it  is  hard  to  think  but  that  the  play  all 
round  must  be  better.  Certainly  clubs  and  balls 
are  better,  many  more  people  play,  and  we  are 
not  aware  that  human  beings  have  appreciably 
deteriorated.  In  all  other  games  there  has  been 
an  advance  ;  it  seems  unlikely  that  golf  can  be 
the  sole  exception. 

But  all  the  while  that  Scotland  had  been  golf- 
ing, no  one  in  England  had  more  than  heard  of 
the  game,  unless  he  had  gone  north  of  the  Tweed, 
which  few  people  then  did,  or  to  Blackheath, 
which  yet  fewer  did;  for  not  only  did  the  Scot- 
tish game  survive  the  Scottish  kings  who  intro- 
duced it,  but  of  all  golf  clubs  that  at  Blackheath, 
where  the  Stuarts  played,  has  the  oldest  records. 
This  is  a  glory  which  can  never  be  taken  from  it 
—  until  some  one  unearths  the  authentic  records 


Ibfstoncal  15 


of  the  club  match  in  which  Cardinal  Beaton  took 
sides  against  the  devil — though  with  less  success 
than   Flemish   Roger   with    St.   Antony's   Club. 


was  called,  at  Black  heath,  are  inextricably  mixed 
up  with  the  records  of  a  yet  older  club  there — 
the  Knuckle  Club.  Eventually  the  two  merged, 
so  far  as  one  makes  out,  and  what  was  the  Golf 
Club  in  summer  became  the  Knuckle  Club  in  the 
winter.  From  their  records  it  would  seem  that 
they  were  thirsty  souls — these  knuckling  and 
golfing  Blackheathens — as  other  golfers  since 
have  been.  But  where  all  our  golf  would  have 
been  without  them,  no  one,  humanly  speaking, 
knows ;  for  when  first  a  St.  Andrews  man  came 
to  Westward  Ho  !  and  saw  its  mighty  capabilities 
as  a  golf  links,  it  was  from  Blackheath  that  most 
of  the  men  came  to  play  on  it  and  to  let  its  ex- 
istence be  known.  That  redoubtable  Mr.  George 
Glennie  came  down  and  won  the  medal  as  often 
as  he  liked.  But  from  that  moment  golf  began 
to  "  boom."  It  did  not  boom  very  quickly  at 
first,  but  Westward  Ho  !  taught  men  at  Liver- 
pool to  look  favorably  on  a  rabbit-warreny  place 
which  has  since  become  the  Iloylake  Golf  Links 
and  "raised"  Mr.  "Johnnie  Ball."  About  the 
same  time  it  occurred  to  the  London  Scottish  Yol- 


16  Golf 

unteers  that  Wimbledon  Common — their  head- 
quarter  camp — was  a  possible  place  to  play  golf 
on.  This  clnb  soon  so  grew  and  multiplied  that 
the  iron  house  which  is  the  volunteer  shelter 
became  inadequate,  and  a  secession  of  the  plebs 
resulted  in  the  purchase  of  the  present  house  of 
the  Royal  Wimbledon  Golf  Club  at  the  other 
end  of  the  Common.  Meanwhile  the  old  London 
Scottish  Club  still  plays  from  the  Putney  end ; 
and  it  is  creditable  to  all  concerned  that  the  con- 
sequent collisions  are  so  few. 

Still,  men  with  golf-clubs  were  a  rarity  at  any 
railway  station  or  ordinary  place  of  meeting  in 
England — there  was  a  lull  in  the  "  boom." 
Gutta-percha  had  been  invented,  and  for  a  shil- 
ling could  be  bought  a  better  ball  than  the  four- 
shilling  feather  thing  which  the  men  in  swallow- 
tailed  coats  and  high  hats  used  to  play  with  ;  but 
still  the  Englishman  and  the  cricketer  regarded 
as  a  fool  anyone  who  was  incautious  enough  to 
call  himself  a  golfer.  But  by  slow,  slow  degrees 
a  spirit  of  toleration  crept  in.  It  began  to  be 
observed  that  some  men  who  admittedly  were 
no  fools  played  golf.  Finally,  Englishmen  and 
cricketers  began  to  suspect  themselves  of  folly 
that  they  had  not  played  golf  before.  Inaword, 
golf  became  the  fashion — golf  is  now  the  fashion. 


Historical  17 

Golf  clubs  sprang  up  in  the  most  unlikely  places 
— golf  links  were  started  on  the  most  unpromis- 
ing ground.  Fine  meadow  land,  unredeemed 
jungle,  stony  and  blasted  heaths— every  scrap  of 
ground  on  which  there  was  room  for  driving  a 
golf-ball  was  put  to  that  purpose  and  called  a  golf 
links.  Men  play  golf  to-day  on  places  at  which 
the  imagination — if  he  had  any — of  the  old  golfer 
would  have  been  paralyzed.  AVe  have,  ourselves, 
played  on  a  common  whereon,  after  the  tee-shot, 
the  niblick  was  the  only  possible  weapon  ;  and 
this  was  true,  even  of  the  putting-greens.  But 
when  wTe  mentioned  this  to  the  enthusiastic  old 
golfer  who  had  started  golf  there  he  said,  ter- 
rified— "  Hush,  hush  !  For  goodness'  sake  don't 
let  the  other  members  hear  you  say  that !  They 
have  never  played  anywhere  else,  and  they  think 
it  is  splendid." 

That  is  exactly  how  it  is.  Most  of  these  poor 
people  have  never  played  anywhere  else,  and  so 
they  do  not  mind  it.  It  is  just  what  is  said  of 
canaries — they  can  be  happy  in  a  cage  because 
they  have  never  been  out  of  one.  So  that,  far 
from  pitying  these  folk,  it  is  impossible  to  do 
otherwise  than  envy  them — these  satis  leati  who 
know  nothing  of  St.  Andrews  and  Westward  Ho  ! 
and   Sandwich.     For  besides   these  bush-whack- 

2 


18  Golf 

ing  and  stone-breaking  courses,  the  new  spirit  of 
English  golf  exploited  courses  which  were  really 
golf  links.  Enough  for  Sandwich  that  the  dele- 
gates for  the  Amateur  Championship  selected  it 
for  the  arena  of  that  contest  in  1S02.  Its  excel- 
lence requires  no  other  testimony.  Littlestone, 
again,  is  an  excellent  English  links,  and  so  are 
Felixstowe  and  Great  Yarmouth.  One  of  the 
latest  finds  is  Brancaster — a  right  royal  links. 
] 3ut  even  to  enumerate  the  links  in  England  might 
fill  a  small  book,  while  in  Scotland,  too— its  ancient 
stronghold — the  game  has  been  spreading  with 
increasing  popularity.  It  lias  spread  until  nearly 
every  blade  of  grass  has  been  hacked  off  that  un- 
fortunate St.  Andrews  Links,  whither  so  many 
golfing  pilgrims  annually  wend.  Nor  is  St. 
Andrews  peculiar.  From  Kirkwall  down  to  Land's 
End  one  can  scarcely  put  one's  linger  on  a  bit  of 
the  map  which  does  not  cover  a  golf-links.  They 
have  golf-links — and  real  good  ones — in  Ireland. 
Not  an  English  colony  is  without  them — from 
Japan  and  all  the  Shiny  East  to  Australia  and 
New  Zealand,  and  back  to  Egypt,  Malta  and  the 
Riviera,  or  westward  again  to  Canada.  Lately, 
moreover,  there  has  been  a  demand  tor  profes- 
sional green-keepers  for  America, — "and  most 
likely'1   wrote    the    applicant,     "we    shall    want 


Historical  19 

many,  for  there  seems  to  be  a  regular  golf  bliz- 
zard setting  in  here." 

j  The  wonder  is,  chiefly,  not  that  golf  should 
have  "  boomed,"  but  that  it  should  have  been  so 
long  in  "  booming."  England  had  seen  golf  in 
occasional  places  for  years  before  she  began  to 
take  the  interest  in  it  which  it  deserves.  Golf  and 
tennis  probably  divide  between  them  the  honors 
of  being"  the  most  ancient  of  athletic  games. 
There  is  reference  in  the  "Arabian  Nights  "  to 
something  which  may  have  been  polo,  though 
the  translator  calls  the  weapon  used  in  the  game 
a  golf-club.  More  probably  the  game  was  an 
equestrian  one  of  some  sort,  y 

But  England,  in  assimilating  Scotland's  game, 
has  somewhat  altered  it  in  the  process.  There 
used  to  be  something  so  grand  and  dignified 
about  it  when  men  used  to  play  in  swallow-tails 
and  high  hats ;  and  in  Scotland  a  portion  of  that 
high  and  noble  spirit  broods  over  the  game  still. 
But  the  Englishman  did  not  accept  the  game  as 
an  inheritance  with  all  its  traditions.  He  took 
it  up  rather  as  a  parvenu  who  has  purchased  a 
house  from  aristocratic  owners.  lie  came  in 
with  the  spirit  of  cricket  possessing  him,  and 
plays  golf  with  less  than  Scottish  solemnity.  He 
is  known  to  laugh  when  his  adversary  makes  a 


20  <3otf 

bad  stroke — he  sometimes  plays  in  flannels,  and 
takes  his  coat  off — he  often  runs  after  the  ball, 
frequently  shouts  at  it,  and  almost  invariably 
counts  his  score.  This  last  is  regarded  as  his 
capital  offense  by  the  antiquaries.  They  say 
that  match-play  by  holes  is  the  real  game  of  golf 
■ — that  score-play  is  but  a  device  for  bringing  to- 
gether a  number  of  competitors.  Of  course  this 
is  perfectly  true,  but  why  a  man  should  not  put 
down  his  strokes  if  he  pleases,  to  give  him  an 
added  interest  to  the  interest  of  the  match,  is 
hard  to  see.  Of  course,  he  should  not  keep  back 
other  players  by  insisting  on  holeing  out  after  all 
chance  of  his  halving  the  hole  has  vanished 
This  is  annoying  both  to  the  man  with  whom  he 
is  playing  and  to  those  behind.  But  if  he  is  in- 
terfering with  no  man's  time  or  pleasure,  why 
should  lie  not  count  his  strokes  if  it  pleases  him? 
It  is  hard  to  think  that  it  will  please  him,  be- 
cause most  of  those  who  put  down  their  score 
on  paper  go  round  in  numbers  which  can  give 
pleasure  only  to  their  opponents.  Doubtless, 
however,  the  score-keeping  is  an  index  of  prog- 
ress -  or  the  reverse — and  with  the  qualifica- 
tions which  we  have  mentioned,  we  fail  to  see  any 
Legitimate  ground  of  complaint  with  the  practise. 
JJut  it  is  only  early    in  the  golfer's  career  that  he 


Ibtetovfcal  21 

will  find  it  necessary  to  carry  pencil  and  paper 
for  this  purpose.  When  he  has  arrived  at  any 
steadiness  of  game  at  all  he  will  find  it  quite  suf- 
ficient to  settle  in  his  mind  on  a  figure  which  he 
shall  take  as  his  average  for  each  hole,  and  to 
reckon  his  score  by  saying  to  himself  "  that  is 
one,"  or  "  two,"  or  whatever  it  may  be,  "  above 
or  below  the  average."  Say  the  player  takes  six 
strokes  a  hole  for  his  hypothetical  average — then, 
if  he  does  the  first  hole  in  7,  he  will  say,  "that 
makes  me  one  above  the  average — say  he  now 
does  the  second  hole  in  5,  and  so  be,  on  that 
hole,  one  below  the  average,  he  will  reckon  on 
this  one  to  the  good  against  his  previous  one  to 
the  bad  and  say,  "  that  makes  me  even  with  the 
average  " — and  so  forth.  Of  course,  this  sort  of 
thing  will  not  do  for  competitions,  but  for  a  man's 
personal  satisfaction  it  will  be  found  quite  ade- 
quate, and  it  is  simplicity  itself. 

Also,  in  taking  up  golf,  the  Englishman  has 
gone  in  for  handicap  competitions  to  an  extent 
which  is  an  abhorrence  to  the  old  school.  Yery 
likely  they  are  right,  but  on  the  other  side  it  must 
be  said  that,  as  a  rule,  Englishmen  bet  less  on 
matches  than  the  Scottish  golfers  seem  to  have 
done.  The  old  school  talks  a  deal  about  the 
" pot-hunting"  which  goes  on  on  English  links  ; 


22  ©olf 

but  though  there  is  a  degree  of  truth  in  it,  it 
must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  pot  is  generally 
of  very  moderate  value.  Scarcely  ever  will  the 
value  of  it  pay  the  hotel  bill  and  traveling  ex- 
penses of  him  who  is  engaged  in  its  chasse. 
People  do  not  really  go  to  competition  meetings 
nearly  so  much  for  the  sake  of  the  prizes  as  be- 
cause they  know  that  they  will  meet  a  number  of 
their  friends,  and  get  a  lot  of  pleasant  matches. 
The  objectionable  spirit  of  "  pot-hunting  "  enters 
into  the  business  very  little. 

If  the  prizes  were  principally  scratch-prizes  they 
would  be  of  interest  to  a  very  select  few,  com- 
paratively  speaking.  At  St.  Andrews,  until  a 
very  few  years  ago,  there  were  no  handicap  prizes 
at  all,  nor  was  there  any  sweepstakes  associated 
with  the  medal.  Probably  it  may  be  true  to  say 
that  there  was  no  handicap  prize  in  Scotland. 
Now  theirname  is  legion.  The  medal  given  to  the 
St.  Andrews  Club  by  King  William  IV.  used  to 
be  the  highest  honor  (excepting  the  Open  Cham- 
pionship) that  an  amateur  golfer  could  win,  as 
representing  success  in  the  best,  field.  Now  the 
Amateur  Championship  has  taken  its  place  by 
instituting  a  competition  open  <<>  a  much  wider 
field.  But  the  posit  ion  taken  up  by  theold  school 
is  not  quite  defensible.     They  truly  say  that  the 


Historical  23 

game  used  to  be  entirely  a  game  of  match-play ; 
that  handicap  prizes  were  practically  unknown. 
This  is  quite  true ;  but  it  does  not  follow,  as  they 
appear  to  assume,  that  the  game  must  necessarily 
remain  such  as  they  played  it.  "We  say  this, 
though  of  our  personal  preference  we  are  with 
them  in  their  love  of  the  match  and  dislike  of  the 
handicap  ;  but  for  all  that,  if  men  like  playing 
for  prizes  under  handicap  we  can  see  nothing 
wicked  in  their  doing  so. 

While  penning  these  lines  there  has  come  to 
hand  a  copy  of  the  Melbourne  Age,  containing 
an  account  of  the  presentation  of  prizes  to  the 
members  of  the  Melbourne  Golf  Club  by  their 
President,  Sir  James  Macbain.  Plainly,  this  an- 
tipodean golf  club  is  in  a  highljr  flourishing  con- 
dition. By  the  same  post  a  correspondent  en- 
closes a  cutting,  headed  "  Golf  a  la  Francaise," 
and  running  thus  : 

"  Under  the  heading  of  '  A  New  English  Game,'  a  popular 
Paris  newspaper  writes  as  follows  : — '  It  is  called  "  Le 
Golf ,"  and  resembles  both  "crockett"  and  lawn-tennis. 
Its  special  feature  consists  in  the  use  of  a  ball,  a  sort  of 
marble,  extremely  small,  which  is  struck  by  a  mallet. 
One  element  of  the  game  consists  in  the  erection  of  a  little 
mound,  recalling  the  pastime  of  i4  forteresses  "  played  with 
marbles  in  our  young  days.  "  Le  Golf,"  which  is  indulged 
in  especially    by  those  persons  whom  lawn-tennis,   with 


24  Oolt 

its  obligation  to  keep  on  running  about  continually, 
soon  fatigues,  is  at  present  the  favorite  amusement  in 
the  suburbs  of  London.  Backed  up  bjT  our  Anglomania, 
it  will  be  the  rage  this  summer  in  our  parks  and  country 
houses,  and,  as  it  does  not  require  a  large  space  of  ground, 
in  our  gardens  and  villas.'  " 

It  is  very  satisfactory  to  find  such  authoritative 
testimony  to  the  probability  of  the  success  of  the 
game  in  France.  If,  however,  the  French  play 
with  anything  of  their  national  elan,  and  drive, 
as  M.  Zola  tells  ns  they  do,  four  hundred  yards, 
the  introduction  of  the  game  is  likely  to  be  of 
much  benefit  to  the  glazier  trade  (to  say  nothing 
of  the  surgical  profession)  in  the  neighborhood 
of  "  our  gardens  and  villas."  Some  ladies  play 
remarkably  well ;  bufe  this  is,  perhaps,  but  a  mo- 
tive the  more  for  the  unwillingness  of  men  to  let 
them  share  in  the  game  on  equal  terms.  The 
superior  sex  points  out  that  the  full  swing  is 
ungraceful  for  ladies.  But  they  should  remember 
that  in  most  cases  the  swing  which  they  jnstly 
condemn  as  ungraceful  was  learned  by  ladies 
when  no  longer  children.  Now,  it  is  well  known 
that  no  man  acquires  a  graceful  style  unless  he 
Learned  the  game  as  a  boy  ;  therefore  it  is  unjust 
to  expect  grace  from  a  lady  who  learned  after 
arriving  at  years  of  discretion.  On  the  other 
hand,  ladies  who  began  golf  as  children  have,  in 


Ibistorfcal  25 

point  of  fact,  exceedingly  neat  and  graceful  swings 
— so  that  the  contention  falls  to  the  ground.  And 
all  the  chief  elements  of  delight  in  the  game — its 
science,  its  leisureliness,  and  its  healthful  exercise 
— make  it  as  proper  an  object  of  feminine  as  of 
masculine  pursuit.  The  objection  that  ladies  can- 
not be  brought  to  see  the  serious  nature  of  the 
immortal  game — that  they  have  an  innate  predis- 
position to  talk  and  to  "  move  on  the  stroke  " — 
may  be  conclusively  answered  (if,  indeed,  it  calls 
for  an  answer)  by  pointing  to  the  silent,  motion- 
less and  appreciative  spectators,  many  of  them 
ladies,  who  accompany  golf  matches  in  Scotland 
and  in  certain  parts  of  England,  where  the 
etiquette  of  the  grand,  old  manner  is  properly 
observed. 


26  <30lf 


CHAPTER  II 


IMPLEMENTS 


We  cannot  follow  back  into  its  earliest  stage 
of  evolution  from  the  primeval  hockey  stick,  the 
first  golf-club  of  primeval  man  ;  but  we  know 
that  the  golf-club  was  but  a  clumsy  weapon  be* 
fore  the  days  of  old  Hugh  Philp  and  that  Scot- 
land imported  feather  golf-balls  from  Holland, 
until  a  protectionist  Act  of  the  Scottish  Parlia- 
ment forbade  it.  A  rude  weapon,  the  effort  of  a 
Welsh  carpenter,  was  once  lost  by  its  owner  in 
the  St.  Andrews  club-house.  It  was  found,  after 
many  days,  reposing  in  stately  anachronism  with 
the  real  old  golf-club  relics  of  the  past,  under  a 
glass  case.  An  antiquary  had  mistaken  it  for  an 
antique— a  mistake  the  like  of  which  antiquaries 
have  made  before. 

Hugh  Philp  made  drivers  and  all  wooden  clubs 
much  lighter  than  the  earlier  specimens  which 
are  still  extant,  and  thnn  the  club  elaborated  by 
the  AWlsh  carpenter.  Making  all  allowance  for 
the  tendency  to  praise  the  time  that  is  past,  Philp 


Umplements  27 

undoubtedly  put  a  beautiful  finish  on  his  clubs, 
and  made  them  of  sterling  good  wood.  But  they 
were  light — lighter  than  the  scratch-playing 
amateur  and  the  professional  uses  to-day.  Also 
as  regards  the  wooden  clubs,  there  were  more  of 
them.  The  golfer  of  to-day  uses  far  more  iron 
clubs,  in  comparison  to  the  wooden  ones,  than 
the  golfer  of  fifty  years  ago  used.  Gutta-percha 
is  partly — principally,  we  suspect — the  reason. 
It  is,  perhaps,  less  elastic  as  a  material  for  golf- 
balls  than  the  old  leather,  stuffed  with  feathers. 
It  is  also  far  cheaper,  and  a  top  with  the  iron 
does  not  destroy  it  so  utterly.  Year  by  year  the 
tendency  seems  to  be  to  play  with  heavier  and 
with  stiffer  clubs.  The  demand  for  golfing 
materials  has  grown  so  rapidly  of  late  that  it  is 
hard  to  get  good  clubs  or  good  balls.  As  a  rule, 
you  will  get  better  clubs  if  you  buy  them  straight 
out  of  the  club-maker's  shop  than  you  will  get  at 
the  general  supply  stores  of  the  city.  Especially  is 
this  the  case  if  you  have  a  friend  in  the  club- 
maker's  shop.  Your  friend  will  then  see  that 
you  are  served  with  a  fine  and  well-seasoned  bit 
of  wood,  both  for  shaft  and  head. 

As  the  advice  which  we  are  presumptuous 
enough  to  offer  is  given  chiefly  in  the  interests  of 
the  beginner,  we  may  say  at  once  that  the  begin- 


28  <30U 

ner  will  do  well  to  play  with  a  stiffish  club.  The 
spring  in  the  shaft  which  feels  so  seductive  is  apt 
to  lead  to  inaccuracy.  Many  materials  have  been 
tried  for  shafts — including,  besides  all  kinds  of 
woods,  rhinoceros  hide  and  shafts  with  a  steel 
core.  We  are  inclined  to  think  that  for  driving 
clubs — indeed  for  all  wooden  clubs— no  shafts  are 
better  than  the  ordinary  hickory  ones,  if  they  be 
good  of  their  kind.  But  lance  wood  and  green- 
heart  are  also  good  for  shafts,  though,  in  our 
opinion,  somewhat  too  heavy.  For  the  shafts, 
of  iron-headed  clubs,  orange  wood  is  perhaps 
better  than  any  ;  for  though  it,  again,  is  heavy, 
the  weight  matters  less  in  this  case,  and  the  orange 
wood  keeps  its  straightness  rather  better  than 
hickory.  But  hickory  is  most  commonly  used, 
and  is  quite  good  enough.  Ash  shafts  are  not  so 
good — the  spring  in  them  is  apt  to  run  all  up  the 
shaft;  and  the  best  driving  shafts  are  considered 
to  be  those  in  which  there  are  afew  inches  of  lino 
steely  spring  just  above  the  whipping  which  hinds 
shaft  and  head  together.  Still,  some  men  like  to 
play  with  shafts  made  of  their  old  billiard  cues, 
and  since  this  wood  is  sure  to  be  well  seasoned  the 
conceit  is  harmless. 

For  heads  beech  is  certainly  the  best.     Apple 
and  pear  and  hornbeam  are  perhaps  more  durable  ; 


Implements  29 

but  that  is  because  they  are  harder,  and  the  hard- 
ness diminishes  the  driving  quality.  The  best 
driving  heads  of  all  are  those  in  which  the  grain 
of  the  wood  runs  out  towards  the  face  ;  but  this 
is  a  point  which  need  not  be  insisted  on.  If  the 
hickory  for  the  shaft  and  the  beech  for  the  head 
be  well  seasoned,  and  the  club  be  well  finished 
off,  the  reasonable  golfer  can  expect  nothing  more. 
He  may  expect,  however,  with  reason,  to  find  in 
the  club-maker's  shop  a  fair  selection  of  these 
good  clubs,  so  that  he  may  make  a  choice  of  the 
weight  and  style  of  club  which  suits  his  fancy. 
Excellent  clubs  may  be  bought  second-hand  out 
of  the  sets  with  which  professionals  play — but 
for  these  the  professional  rightly  and  naturally 
asks  a  fancy  price.  Whether  this  is  worth  the 
paying  depends  a  great  deal  on  the  financial  posi- 
tion of  the  purchaser,  but  the  very  commonest 
form  of  golfing  disappointment  is  to  find  that  one 
cannot  play  a  bit  with  a  dearly-bought  club  which 
had  seemed  a  perfect  wand  of  Jehu  when  we  had 
it  on  trial. 

The  ordinary  wooden  stock-in-trade  of  the 
golfer  of  to-day  is  seldom  more  than  two  drivers 
— one  in  case  of  accident  to  the  other,  and  a 
brassey — i.  <?.,  a  wooden  club  soled  with  iron. 
Never  start  out  with  one  driver  only,  for  if  any 


30  Golf 

loosening  of  the  glue  or  lead  occurs,  to  say  noth- 
ing- of  graver  misadventure,  you  are  rather  at  a 
loss.  Many  men  habitually  use  two  drivers,  one 
for  driving  down  the  wind,  or  where  a  high  shot 
is  desirable,  the  other,  a  stiffer  club,  for  driving  a 
low,  skimming  shot  against  the  wind.  When  the 
distance  is  less  than  that  of  a  full  drive,  or  if  the 
lie  be  bad,  they  take  the  brassey — in  a  worse  lie, 
or  for  a  shorter  distance  again,  the  cleek  ;  and  so 
on  down  to  full  shots  with  the  iron,  to  three- 
quarter,  half  and  quarter  shots,  to  wrist  shots  and 
so  to  putts.  But  in  this  scale  of  gradation  there 
is  nothing  fixed  by  hard  and  fast  line  or  rule,  so 
that  a  man  shall  say  this  is  a  full  iron  shot — this 
a  half-shot.  What  is  one  man's  full-shot  is 
another's  half-shot ;  there  is  no  use  in  dogmatiz- 
ing. The  shot  which  one  man  will  pitch  with  an 
iron,  another  will  take  a  mashie  to,  and  a  third 
would  run  up  the  same  with  a  putter;  and  all 
three  may  lie  equally  near  the  hole,  and  each  club 
was  equally  right.  Even  in  the  case  of  the  man 
who  used  two  drivers  there  need  be  nothing  hard 
and  fast  about  the  names.  Very  possibly  be  will 
call  the  driver  with  which  he  hits  the  more  loft  v 
ball  a  grassed  club,  or  long  spoon  ;  and  we  need 
not  quarrel  about  it.    The  great  thing  is  to  find 

out    what   soil  of    weapon   you  can  do   best  with, 


Implements  31 

and  to  play  with,  that  in  spite  of  names.  If  you 
can  play  best  with  a  walking-stick  there  is  no  rea- 
son that  you  should  not  use  it — in  fact  there  is 
every  reason  that  you  should.  But,  of  course,  there 
are  certain  things  Avhich  cannot  be  done  with  a 
walking-stick,  and  which  you  must  learn  to  do 
somehow.  You  must  learn  to  drive  a  tolerable 
distance  tolerably  straight ;  you  must  learn  to 
play  out  of  a  bad  lie,  and  you  must  learn  to  lift 
the  ball  up  out  of  a  hole  ;  for  though  the  putter 
may  be  the  club  sometimes,  it  certainly  is  not  the 
club  if  a  bunker  yawn  between  you  and  the  put- 
ting-green. In  this  case  you  must  lift  the  ball 
over  the  bunker.  In  old  days  men  used  to  do  this 
a  great  deal  with  baffy  spoons  ;  nowadavs  they 
do  it  with  an  iron  or  a  mashie.  But  to  a  great 
many  beginners  this  lofting  stroke  is  the  most 
difficult  of  all,  and  it  is  our  firm  conviction  that  a 
great  many  of  those  who  fail  with  the  iron  would 
lind  it  far  easier  to  play  the  stroke  tolerably  well 
with  a  baffy,  or  short  spoon — a  short,  much-lofted 
wooden  club.  Some  of  them  have  even  tried  the 
baffy,  and  found  this  to  be  true  ;  but  very  few 
indeed  have  the  courage  to  stick  to  the  baffy. 
Somebody  has  told  them  that  no  good  player  ap. 
proaches  with  the  baffy — that  its  use  is  a  confes- 
sion of  incapacity  with  the  iron.     Well,  why  not  \ 


33  Oolf 

If  you  find  it  the  easier  club  to  loft  the  ball  with, 
use  it.  Accept  the  situation,  and  you  will  not 
feel  xery  deeply  the  sting  of  the  gibe  about  your 
ineffectual  iron-play  if,  with  the  baffy,  you  loft 
nicely  on  to  the  putting-green  while  your  more 
vain  opponent  foozles  into  the  bunker.  There- 
fore, we  would  urge  the  beginner,  if  he  finds  the 
iron  a  puzzle,  to  add  a  short  or  baffy  spoon  to  his 
wooden  clubs,  and  we  think  he  will  thank  us  for 
our  advice.  Certainly  the  green-keeper  will  thank 
us,  for  the  iron  or  mashie  in  the  hands  of  a  be- 
ginner is  a  cruel  weapon  for  the  green. 

The  brassey  should  be  rather  stiffer  in  the  shaft 
and  rather  shorter  than  the  driver.  In  weight  it 
should,  of  the  two  dillerences,  be  rather  heavier. 
Naturally,  the  more  its  face  is  laid  back  the 
higher  it  will  loft  the  ball.  A  flatter-faced 
brassey  will  drive  further,  but  it  cannot  be  used 
with  as  much  effect  as  a  more  spooned  club  when 
there  is  a  steep  bank  or  other  high  obstacle  just 
in  front.  It  is  best,  therefore,  to  adopt  a  middle 
course  and  use  a  club  which  will  effect  a  com- 
promise between  the  extremes.  It  is  impossible 
to  lav  down  fast  rules.  Of  course,  other  things 
being  equal,  the  more  laid  back  the  turo  of  a  club 
the  higher  it  will  loft  the  ball  ;  and,  on  the  whole, 
Stiff-shafted  clubs  do  not  seem  to  drive  the  ball  as 


•ffmplements  33 

high  as  more  supple-shafted  ones.  But  one  man 
will  drive  high  in  the  air  with  a  club  with  which 
another  man  will  drive  skimmers,  and  vice  versa. 
The  same  man,  even,  will  find  himself  at  times 
driving  high  and  at  other  times  skimming  his 
balls  with  the  same  club.  Much,  of  course,  de- 
pends on  the  quality  of  the  turf.  If  the  lies  are 
hard  the  club  will  not  get  under  the  ball,  and  it 
is  very  difficult  to  get  it  well  into  the  air.  This 
is  especially  to  be  noticed  at  St.  Andrews  and 
Musselburgh,  which  are  very  hard,  as  compared 
with  Prestwick,  Westward  Ho  !  and  Sandwich. 

Two  sorts  of  wooden  clubs  are  in  vogue — 
stramht-faced  clubs  and  bidders.  The  bul^e  on 
the  club  gives  it  rather  the  appearance  of  having 
the  face-ache,  and  its  effect  is  that  the  ball  is 
struck  by  a  convex  instead  of  by  a  plane  surface. 
The  merit  of  the  convexity  is  that  it  makes  it 
easier  to  drive  straight.  With  the  plane-faced 
clubs  a  ball  struck  on  the  heel  had  a  tendency  to 
curl  away  to  the  right  of  the  intended  line  ;  a  ball 
struck  on  the  toe  had  a  tendency  to  curl  to  the 
left.  Why  this  occurred  we  need  not  stop  to  in- 
quire— more  especially  as  inquiries  made  at  very 
great  length  and  with  much  science  have  not  re- 
ceived a  very  distinct  answer.  The  inclination  of 
the  convexity  in  each  case  tends  to  correct  the  de- 
3 


34  <30lf 

viation,  for  the  heel  of  the  convex-faced  clnb  faces 
rather  to  the  left  of  the  intended  line  of  flight, 
and  the  toe  faces  rather  to  the  right  of  that  line. 
Tims  the  direction  of  the  face  counteracts  the 
spin  which  is  put  on  the  ball,  and  the  latter  flies 
fairly  straight,  though  not  so  far  as  if  struck  truly 
on  the  most  prominent  point  of  the  convexity. 

So  the  bulger  is  a  good  club  for  all  who  can  be 
at  all  sure  of  hitting  the  ball  somewhere  near 
the  middle  of  the  face  of  the  club — for  straight- 
ness  is  an  exceedingly  valuable  quality.  But  it 
is  by  no  means  so  good  a  club  for  those  to  whom 
it  happens  but  rarely — and  there  are  such — to  hit 
the  ball  nearly  on  the  right  place.  The  beginner 
will  do  better  with  a  straight-faced  club,  lie 
can  come  to  the  bulger  later  on. 

Then  we  come  to  cleeks — for  the  bulger  prin- 
ciple is  as  yet  practically  restricted  to  wooden 
clubs.  Your  cleek  should  be  shorter,  again,  than 
your  brassey,  and  stiifer  in  the  shaft.  Of  cleek- 
heads  there  are  a  great  many  kinds — new  inven- 
tions for  the  most  part.  The  principle  which 
these  new  inventions  agree  in  endeavoring  to 
carry  out  is  to  mass  as  much  weight  as  possible 
on  that  part  of  the  head  wliich  is  directly  behind 
tin'  point  <>t*  its  impact  with  the  ball.  In  other 
words  they  aim  at  making  the  blade  of  the  cleek 


Implements  35 

as  thick  as  it  can  be  made  without  disturbing  the 
balance  of  weight.  There  can  be  little  doubt 
that  this  is  a  good  principle,  and  we  cannot  be 
far  wrong  in  advising  the  golfer  to  choose  his 
cleek-heads  thick,  and  in  other  respects  to  suit 
his  own  fancy;  always  remembering  that  Avhat 
he  gains  in  loft  he  will  lose  in  distance,  and  vice 
versa,  as  we  said  when  speaking  of  the  bras- 
sey. 

For  distances  which  are  too  short  for  the  cleek, 
the  iron  is  the  club.  There  are  many  sorts  of 
irons :  such  as  driving  irons,  lofting  irons  and 
heavy  irons,  but  for  all  practical  purposes  one 
iron  is  sufficient.  It  should  be  shorter  in  the 
shaft  than  the  cleek,  and  the  shaft  should  be 
stiffer.  The  head  should  be  more  lofted  than 
the  cleek-head.  In  this  particular,  again,  we 
should  advise  the  beginner  to  aim  at  a  mean  be- 
tween an  extremely  lofted  head  and  an  extremely 
straight-faced  one.  The  latter  will  drive  some- 
what further,  and  the  greatly  lofted  one  will 
pitch  the  ball  rather  deader ;  but  on  the  whole, 
and  especially  at  first,  it  is  best  to  aim  at  reduc- 
ing the  number  of  clubs  rather  than  exaggera- 
ting it. 

All  the  clubs  which  we  have  discussed,  with 
the  exception  of  the  iron,  and  perhaps  the  baffy 


36  (Bolf 

spoon,  are  intended  almost  entirely  for  full  shots 
— that  is  to  say,  for  shots  in  which  the  full  swing 
is  used.  But  with  the  iron  you  will  have  to  learn 
to  play  a  regular  gradation  of  strokes,  with  three- 
quarter,  half  and  quarter  swings,  down  to  the 
little  wrist  stroke.  For  all  these  purposes  an 
iron  with  medium  loft  is  sufficient,  as  well  as  for 
the  full  swing  strokes ;  but,  as  we  said  before,  it 
is  quite  possible  that  you  may  find  yourself  able 
to  play  most  of  these  with  a  baffy — a  short,  stiff, 
much  spooned  wooden  club — better  than  you  can 
with  an  iron.  In  this,  experience  alone  can  be  a 
safe  guide.  For  the  shorter  strokes,  of  which  we 
have  spoken  as  usually  played  with  an  iron, 
many  men  use  a  mashie.  The  mashie  is  gener- 
ally rather  shorter  and  stiffer  than  the  iron.  Its 
face  is  more  laid  back,  so  that  it  will  pitch  the 
ball  more  dead,  and  its  face  is  exceedingly  short 
— almost  as  short  as  the  little  round  face  of  the 
niblick,  between  which  and  the  iron  the  mashie  is 
a  kind  of  compromise.  The  mashie  is  a  club  of 
rather  recent  invention,  and  before  it  came  into 
general  use  many  players  used  the  niblick  as  an 
approaching  club  where  it  was  necessary  to  pitch 
the  ball  more  dead  than  they  could  hope  to  pitch 
it  with  an  iron.  The  trouble  about  this  practise 
was  that  the  face  of  the  niblick  was  so  dread- 


Implements  37 

fully  small  that  it  required  great  accuracy  to  hit 
the  ball  truly  with  it.  If  hit  on  what  would 
have  been  the  heel  of  the  iron,  the  ball  found  no 
heel  in  the  niblick,  and  flew  off  towards  cover- 
point,  off  the  hose  of  the  niblick,  with  disastrous 
consequence.  Therefore  wise  men  invented  the 
mashie.  But  even  with  the  mashie  it  is  all  too 
easy,  especially  for  the  beginner,  to  hit  the  ball 
on  the  heel.  The  learner  will  probably  do  better 
to  eschew  its  use,  and  to  employ,  instead — sup- 
posing that  he  finds  he  cannot  play  the  short 
approaches  with  sufficiently  dead  loft  off  an 
ordinary  iron — a  much-laid-back  approaching 
cleek.  On  some  links  these  are  a  great  deal  used, 
under  the  name  of  jiggers.  The  shaft  should  be 
short  and  stiff  and  the  head  well  laid  back. 

The  appropriate  and  painful  function  of  the 
niblick  is  to  get  you  out  of  a  bunker,  or  very  bad 
lie.  Its  head  is  so  short  that  it  will  go  into 
almost  any  hole  or  rut  big  enough  to  receive  the 
ball,  and  in  sand  it  meets  with  less  resistance 
than  the  long-faced  iron.  Many  players  have 
ceased  to  carry  a  niblick,  making  a  mashie  do 
most  of  its  duties.  The  niblick  should  be  heavy 
in  the  head  or  should  have  the  shaft  very  strong. 
Mr.  Frank  Fairlie  has  invented  a  method  of  ob- 
viating the  trouble  of  occasionally  hitting  the 


38  (Bolt 

ball  on  the  hose  of  these  short-faced  clubs.  He 
has  the  hose  coming' up  from  the  rear  of  the  "blade 
so  that  no  ball  can  possibly  meet  it.  We  incline 
to  think  that  this  is  a  good  invention  for  the  be- 
ginner, though  most  players  who  have  learned 
with  the  ordinary  weapons  will  be  frightened  by 
the  strange  looks  of  the  new  patent. 

Certainly  the  list  of  clubs  which  we  have  given 
ought  to  suffice  to  bring  any  player  on  to  the 
putting-green.  He  has  now  to  use  a  putter  with 
with  which  to  get  the  ball  into  the  hole.  Of 
pullers  there  are  two  kinds — the  wooden  and 
the  iron.  The  wooden  putter  has  the  wisdom  of 
ages  in  its  favor,  for  the  general  use  of  the  iron 
putter  is  quite  modern.  A\re  are  inclined  to  think 
that  the  iron  putter  is  perhaps  the  better  weapon 
for  putts  up  to  twenty  yards  in  length;  "but  cer- 
tainly the  wooden  putter  is  safer  for  the  long 
putt.  This  matter  of  putting,  however,  is  one 
for  which  it  is  even  less  possible  to  lay  down  a 
hard  and  fast  rule  than  for  any  other  part  of  the 
game.  Men  pull  well  with  all  manner  of  weapons 
and  in  all  manner  of  altitudes — and  in  all  atti- 
tudes and  with  all  weapons  men  putt  badly. 
One  can  but  say  this  for  certain,  that  the  shaft 
of  the  putter,  whether  wooden  putter  or  iron, 
should    he    without   spring.      Balance  is  a  great 


implements  39 

quality  in  a  putter,  but  one  which  it  is  quite  im- 
possible to  define  or  even  to  describe.  An  ex- 
perienced player  will  tell  you  in  a  moment,  of 
any  particular  putter,  whether  it  balances  well. 
Surely,  too,  its  face  should  be  perpendicular — or 
very  nearly  so ;  and  beyond  that  there  is  little 
that  one  can  say. 

To  play  golf  one  must  have  golf-balls ;  and  a 
good  golf-ball  is  a  very  difficult  thing  to  get. 
Excellence  in  balls  may  be  viewed  from  two 
different  points.  The  player  who  is  engaged  in 
important  matches — or  what  he  deems  as  such — 
is  on  the  lookout  for  the  ball  that  will  enable 
him  to  play  the  best  golf.  The  beginner  is  more 
concerned  with  finding  out  a  ball  which  will  re- 
sist his  tops  with  the  iron  and  various  maltreat- 
ment. 

From  these  rather  vague  hints  we  must  leave 
the  beginner  to  cull  what  information  he  can. 
This,  above  all,  is  to  be  remembered — that  no 
ball  is  good  when  it  is  new.  If  you  buy  balls  new 
you  should  keep  them— unpainted  for  choice — in 
a  cool  dark  place  for  three  months,  then  paint 
them,  give  the  paint  a  month  to  dry,  and  go  and 
try  to  play  golf  with  them.  If  the  paint  be  too 
old,  or  if  too  much  drier  be  mixed  with  it,  it  will 
chip  off  with  the  jar  of  the  striking. 


40  <3olf 


CHAPTER  III 

EDUCATIONAL 

Golf  is  best  learned  by  imitation,  and  since 
boys,  being,  I  suppose,  nearer  akin  to  monkeys  than 
they  are  when  they  grow  up,  are  the  most  imi- 
tative of  human  creatures,  it  follows  even  from 
that  that  golf  is  best  learned  as  a  boy.  Moreover, 
it  is  a  great  matter  to  get  into  the  right  way  of 
doing  athletic  things  while  the  muscles  are  grow- 
ing ;  for  then  they  seem  to  grow  so  that  they  can- 
not do  it  wrong.  Unfortunately  every  one  is  not 
a  boy,  nor  has  every  boy  a  good  golfing  model  to 
imitate,  or  else  perhaps  it  would  not  be  so  abso 
Intel  v  necessary  to  write  precepts  for  a  golfer's 
teaching.  Further,  no  boy  ever  learns  much  out 
of  a  book,  so  that  the  following  remarks  must 
be  considered  to  be  intended  for  persons  with 
common  sense  and  a  faculty  for  applying  it. 

Golf— like  all  Gaul  in  Caesar's  time — is  divided 
into  three  parts — driving,  iron-play  and  putting. 
Driving  is  the  most  pleasing  part  of  the  game, 
because  the  ball  looks  so  delightful  as  it  flies  two 


Educational  41 

hundred  yards  without  touching  ground  (that  is 
with  a  wind  behind),  and  there  is  a  great  sen- 
suous pleasure  in  hitting  the  ball  truly  with  the 
driver.  In  old  days  it  was  rather  the  counsel  for 
the  beginner  to  abjure  the  driver  and  play  with 
the  cleek ;  but  this  was  before  golfers  were  so 
numerous,  or  turf  on  golf  links  so  scarce.  The 
cleek,  as  an  iron-headed  club,  cuts  up  more  turf 
than  a  driver  will  do.  Therefore,  do  not  begin 
with  a  cleek,  but  begin  with  a  modified  form  of 
wooden  club,  which  shall  resemble  the  cleek  in 
being  somewhat  short  and  stiff.  The  resident 
club-maker  will  make  you  one,  or  a  mid  spoon 
will  meet  the  purpose.  Later,  when,  if  ever,  you 
acquire  confidence  and  freedom,  you  may  lengthen 
your  driver,  and  so,  presumably,  your  drive. 
One  says  presumably,  for  it  is  almost  open  to 
question,  so  slight  is  the  increase  in  length  of 
drive  given  by  a  longer  club.  Especially  if  the 
beginner  has  had  the  education  of  a  cricketer 
will  he  find  a  shorter  club  more  handy,  for  so  it 
becomes  more  like  a  cricket-bat.  Now,  having 
hold  of  such  a  club  as  this,  it  is  necessary  to  con- 
sider  the  proper  position  of  the  bail  which  you 
mean  to  strike  with  it — the  proper  position,  that 
is,  relatively  to  the  striker. 

In  order  to  get  a  definite  starting-point,  I  would 


42  <3olf 

ask  the  learner  to  imagine  the  intended  line  of 
flight  of  the  ball.  As  he  stands  in  position  to 
strike,  a  line  drawn  from  the  toes  of  one  foot  to 
the  toes  of  the  other  should  he,  roughly  speaking, 
parallel  to  this  imaginary  line  of  the  intended 
flight  of  the  ball.  With  regard  to  the  distance 
which  the  ball  should  be  from  the  striker  a  good 
measurement  is  to  lay  the  club  with  its  "heel" 
to  the  hall,  and  the  end  of  the  shaft  should  then 
just  reach  to  the  left  knee  when  the  striker  stands 
upright.  This,  then,  gives  the  manner  of  facing 
the  ball  and  the  distance  of  the  hall  from  the 
striker.  To  determine  its  position  relatively  to 
the  feet  of  the  striker,  a  line  drawn  from  the  hall 
in  such  a  way  as  to  meet  at  right  angles  the  line 
from  the  striker's  left  toes  to  his  right  toes  should 
fall,  say,  four  inches  to  right  of  his  left  toe. 
These  directions  will  give  all  necessary  adjust- 
ments, and  it  will  he  seen,  by  those  who  know, 
that  in  them  we  have  advocated  what  seems  to 
be  a  mean,  avoiding,  on  the  one  hand,  the  ten- 
dency of  Mr.  J.  E.  Laidlay,  who  places  his  ball 
for  the  drive  almost  in  advance — to  the  left— 
of  his  left  foot,  ami,  on  the  other  hand,  the  idio- 
syncrasy of  Mr.  Maelie,  say,  who  plays  with  the 
ball  not  much  to  (he  left  of  his  right  foot.  Both 
these  are  very  Jine  players,  but  it  would  be  more 


BCmcational  43 

true  to  say  that  they  are  so  in  spite  of  their 
peculiarities  than  by  reason  of  them.  In  all  hints 
for  the  learner  we  shall  try  to  suggest  the  mean, 
merely  naming  the  extremes  between  which,  if 
anywhere,  is  perfection. 

The  manner  of  gripping  the  club  is  the  next 
subject  for  consideration  ;  for  it  is  important, 
though  we  are  disposed  to  think  that  many  teach- 
ers over-rate  its  importance.  One  maxim  may  be 
laid  down  as  a  truism — that  the  beginner  should 
grip  more  tightly  with  the  left  hand  than  with 
the  right.  Some  finished  players  say  that  they 
grip  equally  tightly  with  both  hands ;  but  then  it 
is  not  to  finished  players  that  these  remarks  are 
addressed.  Some  players,  again,  hold  the  thumbs 
of  both  hands  down  along — not  round — the  club 
shaft ;  others  hold  one  thumb  along  and  the  other 
round  ;  others,  again,  hold  both  thumbs  down. 
As  before,  the  mean  is  perhaps  the  most  advisable 
aim  for  the  beginner.  Let  him  hold  the  thumb 
of  the  right  hand  round  and  that  of  the  left  hand 
down  along  the  leather.  It  will  be  seen  that  in 
this  manner  a  stronger  grip  is  obtained  with  the 
left  hand  than  with  the  right,  which  is  in  itself  a 
good  thing,  and,  further,  that  the  thumb  of  the 
left  hand  helps  to  control  the  direction  of  the 
swing — that  is  to  say,  the  movements  of  the  head 


44  <3olf 

of  the  club.  Maybe  it  is  possible  to  hit  a  little 
harder  with  both  thumbs  round  the  club,  but  it  is 
of  more  importance  to  be  accurate  than  to  be 
powerful;  and,  again,  it  is  possible,  at  iirst,  to  be 
a  little  more  accurate  with  both  thumbs  along 
the  grip,  but  it  does  not  do  to  get  cramped  in 
seeking  to  be  accurate.     The  mean  is  best. 

Now,  you  have  hold  of  the  club  in  the  right 
way,  and  the  ball  is  at  the  right  distance  from 
you,  and  your  feet  are  in  proper  position  relatively 
to  each  other  and  to  the  ball.  Remember,  now, 
that  when  you  begin  to  strike  the  ball  you  do 
not  want  to  be  stiff,  as  if  you  had  swallowed  a 
poker  and  had  rheumatism  at  every  joint.  Do 
not,  therefore,  tighten  your  joints ;  let  your 
knees  be  slightly  bent,  so,  too,  with  your  elbows 
and  your  back  ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  do  not 
crook  your  limbs  in  the  fashion  of  a  dachshund, 
nor  painfully  bend  your  back  over  into  the  atti- 
tude of  a  croquet-hoop — for  all  these  things  are 
done.  Let  all  the  principal  hinges  of  the  body 
!><•  slightly  relaxed,  but  not  elaborately  crooked. 
If  you  are  a  well-made  man — and  every  one  sup- 
poses himself  to  be  that — the  most  natural  angle 
of  these  joints  will  most,  likely  be  tin;  least  wrong. 
The  bend  of  your  right  elbow  will  be  a  good  deal 
affected   by    the   manner   of  your  grip  with  the 


Educational  45 

right  hand.  Many  professional  teachers  insist 
on  the  right  hand  being  forced  over  the  club 
until  the  back  of  the  hand  is  uppermost.  Some 
pupils  carry  this  to  so  great  an  extreme  as  to  get 
in  a  short  time  something  like  scrivener's  palsy 
in  the  right  hand  and  arm.  This  is  a  pity. 
In  moderation  the  turn  over  of  the  right  hand 
is  good,  but  it  is  a  mistake  to  cripple  oneself 
with  it. 

The  club  should  be  laid  to  the  ball  in  such  a 
way  that  the  middle  line  of  the  head — say,  where 
the  maker's  name  usually  comes — shall  be  just 
opposite  the  ball.  The  sole  of  the  club  should  be 
fair  and  flat  on  the  ground — presuming  the 
ground  to  be  smooth — and  the  face  of  the  club 
should  be  at  right  angles  to  the  intended  line  of 
flight  of  the  ball.  Xow,  if  you  are  standing  at 
all  correctly  you  will  find  that  the  ball,  your 
hands  and  your  left  eye  are  pretty  much  in  the 
same  vertical  plane.  Your  hands  should  not  be 
much  pushed  out  from  the  body.  A  straight  line 
drawn  from  your  eye  to  the  ball  should  pass  high 
above  them.  Indeed,  we  think  we  may  say  that 
with  almost  all  good  players  the  upper  arms, 
almost  down  to  the  elbows,  are  kept  in  gentle 
contact  with  the  body. 

The  method  of  all  golfers — practically  speaking 


40  <3olf 

— when  about  to  drive  is  as  follows  :  they  walk 
up  to  the  ball  and  stand  to  it,  with  reference  to 
its  intended  line  of  flight,  pretty  much  as  we  have 
indicated ;  they  rest  the  club  for  a  moment  on  the 
ground  behind  the  ball,  so  as  to  assure  themselves 
of  the  distance,  then  they  commence  a  little  pre- 
liminary waggle  of  the  club  over  the  ball  once  or 
twice ;  then  they  again  rest  the  club  behind  the 
ball  for  a  moment,  and  then  they  draw  it  up  for 
the  magnum  opus — the  heroic  business  of  the 
"  swing."  This  is  the  order  to  be  observed  ;  and 
taking  the  various  motions  of  the  "  address  "  in 
chronological  order  Ave  have  now  arrived  at  the 
"waggle."  The  "waggle"  has  a  use  though  it 
does  not  appear  to  have  one.  Its  use  is  to  en- 
courage the  arms  into  a  certain  freedom  of  move- 
ment which  they  would  be  apt  to  miss  if  the  club 
were  drawn  right  away  from  the  ball  after  its 
first  rest  behind  it.  Again,  the  "waggle"  is  a 
sort  of  trial  cruise,  or  preliminary  canter,  for  it 
suggests  to  the  driver  the  proper  direction  of  the 
swing  by  causing  the  club-head  to  move  over  the 
hall  in  little  sections  of  almost  the  same  areas 
the  swing  itself.  The  club-head  should  not  be 
drawn  more  than  two  feet  or  so  away  from  the 
b;ill  in  this  preliminary  flourish,  nor  he  allowed 
to  follow  on  for  more  than  about  that  distance  in 


jEDucational  47 

front  of  the  ball.  The  waggle  should  be  executed 
chiefly  by  the  wrists,  and  above  all  it  should  be 
remembered  that  its  great  use  is  to  assure  the 
driver  that  his  arms  are  moving  freely  while  his 
body  is  planted  firmly,  though  not  stiffly,  on  the 
feet.  The  latter  is  a  very  important  point.  A 
good  player's  feet  seem  to  grip  the  ground  almost 
as  if  he  were  quadrumanous  when  he  addresses 
himself  to  the  ball.  It  needs  no  wizard  to  see 
that  if  there  be  any  shiftiness  or  uncertainty  in 
the  stand  the  stroke  must  lose  both  in  power  and 
accuracy.  So,  when  this  "  waggle "  has  been 
executed,  following  the  line  of  flight  of  the  swing 
(so  near  as  may  be,  that  is,  considering  that  the 
club  in  the  "  waggle  "  has  to  pass  to  and  fro  above 
the  ball),  then  the  driver  should  again  for  a  mo- 
ment rest  the  club  behind  the  ball  before  raising 
it  for  the  great  effort  to  which  all  that  has  gone 
before  is  but  preface.  One  great  point  to  bear 
in  mind  is  that  the  golfing  stroke  is  a  swing,  and 
not  a  hit.  The  ball  is  to  be  swept  away  by  the 
swift  movement  of  the  club — it  is  not  a  matter  of 
driving  at  a  dynamometer.  It  will  at  once  be 
asked  "  What  is  the  difference  between  a  swing 
and  a  hit?"  The  difference  that  we  mean  to 
imply  may  be  explained  by  saying  that  by  swing 
we  mean  a  motion  which  may  be  slow  or  may  be 


48  <50lf 

fast,  may  be  sometimes  slow  and  sometimes 
fast,  but  changing  its  speed  at  a  constant  rate  of 
acceleration  or  diminution. 

One  of  the  great  maxims  of  the  old  golfing  sages 
was  "  slow  back."  You  were  told  that  the  up- 
ward swing  was  to  be  very  much  slower  than  the 
downward  swing.  This  is  quite  good  advice,  but 
the  slowness  of  the  upward  swing  must  not  be  the 
slowness  of  a  man  "  trying  to  catch  a  fly  on  his 
ear,"  as  Sir  Walter  Simpson  so  happily  puts  it, 
Ko;  the  upward  stroke  must  be  a  swing  no  less 
than  the  downward.  It  must  be  a  swing,  and  it 
must  not  be  a  lift.  The  player  should  feel  the 
weight  of  the  club-head  all  the  while  that  he  is 
raising  it.  Further,  there  should  be  a  sort  of  har- 
mony between  the  upward  and  downward  swing. 
A  man  in  whom  practise  in  youth  lias  engendered 
confidence  will  bring  the  club  on  to  the  ball  with 
a  lightning  speed  which  would  lead  a  middle-aged 
learner  into  a  horrible  fiasco — this  young  man 
may  seem  to  bring  up  his  club  very  quickly,  and 
indeed  may  actually  do  so  ;  but  you  may  be  quite 
sure  that  it  is  not  a  swift  movement  in  com- 
parison with  the  speed  of  his  downward  swing — 
otherwise  he  would  not  be  a  fine  driver.  There 
must  be  a  unity  ;  and  the  man  who  can  but  dare 
to  hit  slowly  at  the  ball  must   make  his   upward 


^Educational  49 

swing  slower  again,  or  he  will  lose  this  unity.  In 
point  of  fact  the  whole  thing  ought  to  be  of  a 
piece — the  pace  and  vehemence  of  the  "  waggle  " 
and  the  speed  of  the  upward  swing  all  regulated 
by  the  pace  of  movement  which  the  player  has  it 
in  his  mind  to  give  to  the  club-head  at  the  mo- 
ment that  the  club-head  meets  the  ball.  But,  it 
will  be  said,  there  is  necessarily  a  pause  at  the 
top  of  a  swing.  That  is  so,  but  even  this  pause 
has  a  relation  to  the  speed  of  the  swing  and  is 
shorter  where  the  swing  is  quicker.  In  this 
regard  Ave  find  a  striking  contradictory  instance 
in  the  person  of  David  Brown  who  once  Avon  the 
championship  at  Musselburgh.  His  is  a  rather 
sIoav,  wild  SAving  upward,  Avith  a  tremendously 
long  pause  at  the  top.  Noav  David  Brown  is  an 
exceedingly  fine  golfer,  but  his  is  not  the  driving 
style  on  which  Ave  should  advise  a  learner,  espe- 
cially a  middle-aged  one,  to  form  himself.  Here, 
as  in  above-named  cases,  he  is  a  genius  in  spite, 
rather  than  by  reason,  of  his  eccentricities.  The 
swing,  then  must  be  allowed  "  to  finish  itself  out," 
as  it  is  called,  at  the  top  before  the  club  is  brought 
doAvn  again  to  the  ball.  Fly-fishers  will  best 
realize  the  full  meaning  of  this  counsel.  Then 
may  the  club,  tightly  held  in  the  left  hand,  and 
less  tightly  in  the  right,  be  brought  doAvn  Avith 


50  <3olf 

constantly  but  evenly  accelerated  force  until  the 
greatest  speed  which  the  player  can  control  is 
given  to  it  at  the  moment  at  which  the  face  of  the 
club  meets  the  ball. 

So  much,  then,  for  the  pace  of  the  swing  in  its 
various  movements.  The  direction  of  the  swing- 
is  the  next  point  to  study.  A  good  fundamental 
principle  to  bear  in  mind  is  that  the  club-head 
should  travel  as  long  as  possible,  consistently  with 
sufficient  force,  in  the  intended  direction  of  the 
ball's  flight.  The  correctness  of  this  principle  is 
almost  self-evident,  for  it  is  clear  that  if  fully 
acted  on  it  will  ensure  the  ball  being  correctly 
struck,  and  also  will  give  the  player  a  better 
chance  of  striking  it  correctly,  because  the  club- 
head  will  thus  be  traveling  for  some  little  section 
of  the  swing  in  the  direction  in  which  it  is  pos- 
sible for  it  to  meet  the  ball  properly.  The  club- 
head  must  not  be  describing  the  arc  of  a  circle  at 
the  moment  of  its  meeting  the  ball — it  must  be 
traveling  horizontally  if  it  is  to  hit  the  ball 
fa iily,  and  the  longer  its  course  in  this  horizontal 
plane  the  longer  is  the  space  in  which  it  may  meet 
the  ball  fairly,  [t  gives  more  margin  for  a  little 
error.  This  is,  in  fact,  an  application  of  the 
principle  on  which  the  young  cricketer  is  in- 
structed to  play  forward  "  Prom  wicket  to  wicket." 


Educational  51 

He  then  keeps  his  bat  moving  all  the  time  in  such 
a  direction  as  will  meet  the  ball  fairly. 

The  ffreat  means  of  carrying  into  effect  this 
principle  in  its  application  to  golf  is  to  let  the 
arms  swing  well  away  out  from  the  body  as  the 
club-head  comes  down.  If  the  arms  be  kept  in  to 
the  sides  the  ball  will  be  sliced  and  bestruckwith 
a  feeble,  crooked  blow.  Now  it  is  a  maxim 
taught  by  all  golfing  experience  that  the  down- 
ward swing  is  almost  sure  to  be  a  repetition,  in  its 
direction,  of  the  upward  swing.  If  you  are  slicing 
your  balls  and  ask  a  professional  the  reason, 
he  will  generally  tell  you  that  you  are  bringing 
the  club  up  too  straight.  Of  course,  theoretically, 
it  does  not  matter  how  vou  are  brinoino*  the  club 
up — what  matters  is  how  you  are  bringing  it 
down. 

But  the  professional  knows  by  experience,  with- 
out having  theorized  about  it,  that  if  you  bring  up 
the  club  in  a  certain  direction  you  will  bring  it 
down  again  in  a  similar  direction  :  therefore  he 
tells  you  to  sweep  it  along  the  ground  away  from 
the  ball  as  you  take  it  back  preparatory  to  bring- 
ing it  down  again.  If  you  take  a  spot  on  the 
carpet  and  try  bringing  the  club-head  away  from 
that  spot  as  if  it  were  the  ball,  you  will  find  that 
unless  you  sway  with  your  body,  which  you  must 


52  <3olf 

not  do,  the  only  way  that  you  can  with  any  ease 
bring  the  club  away  from  the  ball  in  a  direction 
which  would  be  a  backward  prolongation  of  its 
intended  line  of  flight  is  by  letting  your  arms 
straighten  themselves  well  out  as  you  draw  the 
club-head  away.  If  you  begin  at  once  to  bend 
your  arms,  the  club-head  will  leave  the  ball  in  a 
direction  slanting  from  this  line ;  and  you  may 
depend  upon  it  that  if  you  bring  it  away  in  this 
manner  you  will  also  bring  it  down  again  in  a 
like  manner.  And  this  you  must  not  do.  By  the 
time  your  club,  in  the  upward  swing,  has  gone  to 
an  angle  of  about  45  degrees  with  the  plane  of 
the  horizon,  your  arms  should  be  stretched  out 
to  their  fullest.  Then  they  must,  of  course,  be 
allowed  to  bend  to  admit  of  the  club  being  swung 
well  back  behind  the  head,  and  this  series  of  ad- 
just incuts  will  naturally  repeat  themselves  as  you 
briii"-  the  club  down  again.  AVedonot  mean  that 
you  are  to  neglect  the  direction  of  the  downward 
swine;  altogether.  It  is  useful  to  remember  that 
your  arms  should  again  be  at  their  fullest  stretch 
when  the  club  is  again,  on  its  descent,  at  the  same 
angle  of  45  degrees  with  the  horizon;  but  if  you 
can  gel  into  thecorrect  way  of  the  upward  swing 
von  will  find  the  reverse  motions  much  simplified. 
At  the  top  of  the  swing  the  club  should  be  above 


^Educational  53 

the  right  shoulder  and  pointing  away,  behind 
your  head,  somewhat  in  the  line  in  which  you  in- 
tend to  drive  the  ball.  Do  not  let  the  club  strike 
or  rest  on  your  shoulder,  nor  swing  it  round  so 
low  as  to  be  below  your  shoulder.  To  get  the 
club  into  this  position  with  any  ease  you  will  find 
that  you  have  to  allow  the  body  to  turn  upon  the 
hips,  and  also  to  allow  the  knee  to  bend  inwards. 
Your  shoulders  will  also  of  course  turn  upon  the 
backbone,  as  if  the  backbone  Avere  a  pivot  on 
which  they  worked.  "With,  almost  all  fine  drivers 
you  will  see  that  the  left  heel  comes  right  off  the 
ground  and  that  they  aid  the  turn  of  the  body  by 
rising  on  to  the  ball,  or  even  on  to  the  toes,  of  the 
left  foot.  But  all  these  motions  should  rather 
follow  the  sAving,  so  as  to  enable  it  to  be  easilv 
performed,  than  be  considered  an  integral  part  of 
it.  They  should  go  to  help  the  swing,  rather 
than  to  make  it.  If  you  find  it  easy  and  natural 
to  raise  your  left  heel  thus  off  the  ground,  if  at>u 
find  that  it  is  dragged  off  the  ground,  as  one  may 
say,  in  the  motions  of  the  swing,  allow  it  to  fol- 
low these  motions ;  but  do  not  make  an  effort  to 
take  the  heel  off  the  ground  in  the  hope  of  thus 
making  the  SAving  longer  and  more  correct.  The 
same  may  be  said  of  the  bending  in  of  the  left 
knee  and  the  turning  of  the  body — these  move- 


54  <3olf 

mcnts  should  be  allowed  to  take  place  in  propor- 
tion as  the  upward  swing  seems  to  demand  it  of 
them ;  they  should  not  be  made  in  order  to  form 
the  swing. 

In  course  of  the  upward  swing  the  weight  of 
the  body  is  transferred  from  both  legs — or,  indeed, 
from  the  left  leg,  for  this  should  bear  most  of  the 
weight  as  you  address  the  ball — on  to  the  right 
leg,  which  supports  almost  the  whole  weight 
when  your  hands  are  at  their  highest  above  the 
shoulder.  But  this,  again,  should  follow  the 
swing  naturally,  and  there  should  be  no  effort 
made  to  effect  the  change. 

But,  it  will  be  asked,  how  can  this  be  done  if 
the  body  is  not  allowed  to  sway  I  The  true  fact 
is  that  the  lower  part  of  the  body  does  move  in 
course  of  the  upward  swing  from  left  to  right, 
working  on  the  hips;  but  the  backbone  at  the 
shoulders  must  In1  steady,  or  must  move  on  its 
own  axisonly,  forall  through  the  swing  your  head 
should  hardly  change  its  position  at  all,  but  must 
keep  the  eyes  Looking  steadfastly  at  the  ball 
throughout.  If  you  take  your  eves  off  the  ball 
for  a  moment  you  will  find  it  impossible  to  be 
accurate.  Further,  at  the  moment  at  which  the 
club-head  meets  the  bull  your  legs,  body,  hands, 
and  all  should   be  back  again,  for  the  fraction  of 


BDucational  55 

an  instant,  in  the  position  in  which  all  were  when 
you  addressed  yourself  to  the  ball.  For  this  is  the 
use  of  the  address,  to  show  yourself  the  attitude 
in  which  yon  wish  all  your  muscles  and  your  golf- 
club  to  be  at  the  moment  of  striking.  Therefore, 
it  is  well  to  have  the  upper  vertebrae  of  the  back- 
bone steady,  as  a  sort  of  fixed  point  to  help  you 
back. 

Beginners,  and  even  some  who  have  played  long 
enough  to  know  better,  have  a  habit  of  moving 
forward  the  right  foot  as  they  strike,  or  even  of 
moving  the  left  foot  a  little  as  thev  swing  back. 
It  need  scarcely  be  said  that  there  can  hardly  be 
a  more  fatal  habit.  It  must  diminish  accuracy, 
and  can  give  no  compensation  in  the  way  of  added 
power. 

But  even  after  you  have  contrived  to  bring 
down  the  club  so  as  to  hit  the  ball  as  described, 
there  is  a  further  word  to  be  said  about  the  direc- 
tion in  which  the  club-head  should  travel.  Not 
only  should  it  travel  before  striking  the  ball  in 
the  direction  which  would  be  a  backward  prolonga- 
tion of  the  intended  line  of  flight  of  the  ball,  but 
even  after  the  ball  has  been  struck  it  should 
follow  on  as  far  and  as  straight  as  possible  after 
it.  And  this,  again,  you  will  find  can  best  be 
done  (indeed,   can  scarcely  otherwise   be  done, 


56  <30lf 

except  by  swaying  of  the  whole  body,  which  is 
still  unadvisable)  by  letting  the  arms  again  fly 
out  straight  as  if  they,  too,  were  wishing  to 
follow  the  ball.  In  fact,  we  may  put  the  precept 
very  roughly,  but  practically,  in  this  form — to  let 
the  arms  swing  as  far  as  conveniently  may  be 
from  the  bodv  all  through  the  swing,  both  before 
the  ball  is  struck  and  after.  It  is  evident  that  if 
you  are  to  keep  your  eye  on  the  ball  throughout 
(and  this  you  must  do)  your  left  upper  arm  must 
not  swing  up  high,  so  that  the  elbow  should  come 
before  your  face.  You  must  be  able  to  look  over 
it  at  the  ball. 

In  these  instructions  we  have  tried  to  give  brief 
reasons  as  we  went  along.  We  may  now  shortly 
epitomize  the  most  important  pieces  of  advice. 
Stand  steadily  on  your  feet.  Let  the  swing  be  a 
harmony,  the  up-swing  more  slow  than  the  down- 
swing, hut  in  a,  certain  relation  to  it.  Keep  your 
eye  on  the  hall  ;  let  your  arms  swing  well  away 
out  from  the  body  as  you  draw  the  club  hack 
from  the  hall,  and  similarly  as  it  comes  down  to 
the  hall  and  after  it  has  struck  it,  Grasp  more 
tightly  with  your  left  hand  than  with  the  right. 
Lei  unessential  motions,  such  as  lifting  the  heel 
of  the  left  foot  off  the  ground  and  heading  the 
left  knee,  follow   the  swing    rather  than   be  con 


^Educational  57 

sciously  made  a  part  of  it.  Do  not  try  to  hit 
with  so  much  force — that  is  to  say,  speed — as 
to  be  unable  to  control  the  direction  of  the  club- 
head. 

'When  you  first  begin  you  will  learn  more  by 
trying  to  get  this  swing  correctly  without  a  ball 
than  you  will  with  one.  Practise  at  daisies  on  a 
lawn,  but,  if  possible,  always  have  a  good  golfer 
looking  on  to  tell  you  of  any  faults.  Then,  when 
you  begin  hitting  at  the  ball,  you  will  naturally 
reproduce  the  swing  without  having  to  think 
about  all  its  details. 

If  you  want  to  get  on  }Tou  must  be  thoughtful. 
Golf  is  not  to  be  learned  without  an  effort.  If 
you  have  made  a  bad  start,  try  to  think  where 
the  error  was,  and  have  a  few  trial  swings  at  a 
daisy  to  correct  it.  Equally,  if  you  have  made 
an  unusually  good  one,  try  to  reproduce  it,  so  as 
to  fix  in  your  mind  and  muscles  the  means  by 
which  you  achieved  it.  There  is  really  much 
more  fun  and  satisfaction  to  be  got  out  of  the 
game  if  }Tou  take  it  up  in  this  earnest  way  than  if 
you  go  at  it  in  a  slap-dash  fashion.  You  will  im- 
prove so  much  faster.  Golf  altogether  is  as  much 
a  matter  of  character  and  temperament  as  of  eye 
and  muscle. 

But  do  not  study  the  details  so  much  as  to  lose 


58  Golf 

all  sense  of  freedom.  Keep  the  direction  of  the 
swing  right,  and  keep  your  eye  on  the  ball — these 
are  the  two  big  things  you  have  to  think  of. 
Other  details  are  less  important,  and  may  be 
taken  up  as  }rou  find  you  are  going  wrong  in 
them.  Do  not  sway  your  body  is  a  third  maxim 
of  first-rate  importance,  and  if  you  transgress 
none  of  these  three  you  cannot  long  go  far 
wrong. 

Still,  you  will  always  find,  even  when  you  have 
got  the  swing  beautifully,  in  the  absence  of  the 
ball,  that  it  becomes  a  different  thing  when  the 
gutta-percha  takes  the  place  of  the  daisy.  You 
will  then  find  yourself  irresistibly  tempted  to  hit 
— not  to  stick  to  the  easy  swing.  Often,  too, 
without  understanding  your  malady,  you  will 
find  that  you  are  in  a  very  bad  case,  and  more  often 
than  not  an  experienced  player,  watching  you, 
will  tell  you  that  your  eye  is  not  on  the  ball.  It 
seems  as  if  it  ought  to  be  easy  to  look  at  the  ball, 
hut  experience  shows  us  how  difficult  it  is.  Look- 
ing away  from  the  ball  is  a  sin  which  the  best 
players  commit  at  times.  Remember,  too,  that 
it  is  not  on  the  top  that  you  wish  to  strike  the 
ball,  but  on  the  hinder  side.  Keep  your  eye, 
therefore,  on  the  spot  which  you  wish  the  face  of 
the  club  to  meet. 


JE&ucatfonal  59 

Of  the  professional  or  amateur  teachers  to 
whom  you  may  appeal,  you  will  lind  that  some 
are  very  much  more  helpful  than  others.  An 
amateur  will  rarely  do  you  much  good.  He  is 
generally  rather  intent  on  his  own  game,  and 
gives  you  but  little  attention.  But  the  profes- 
sional you  will  pay  to  give  you  attention,  so  you 
have  a  right  to  expect  it.  But  do  not  let  him 
come  out  with  clubs  and  balls,  or,  at  least,  let 
him  confine  himself  to  one  club  and  one  ball*,  with 
which  he  may  set  you  good  examples  from  time 
to  time.  But  on  .no  account,  at  first,  endeavor 
to  play  a  match  with  him ;  for,  if  you  do,  it  is 
clearly  absurd  to  expect  him  to  take  as  much  in- 
terest in  your  game  as  in  his  ;  and  it  is  in  your 
game  that  you  want  him  to  take  exclusive  in- 
terest. It  is  by  no  means  always  the  best  play- 
ers, whether  professionals  or  amateurs,  who  will 
give  us  the  best  advice,  any  more  than  it  is  the 
healthiest  man  who  is  the  best  doctor.  Some 
have  a  peculiar  talent  for  seeing  what  is  wrong. 
Moreover,  a  man  who  is  fairly  familiar  with  your 
play  is  likely  to  be  better  able  to  detect  the 
causes  of  your  aberrations  than  another.  lie  is 
in  a  position  analogous  to  that  of  the  familjr 
doctor  who  has  been  conversant  with  your  con- 
stitution since  your  infancy.     A  clever  teacher 


CO  (Bolt 

will  not  try  to  teach  you  a  too  exact  imitation  of 
his  own  style,  but  will  be  intelligent  enough  to 
see  how  far  his  methods  are  suited  to  your 
muscles  and  shape. 

But  all  success  in  golf  is  not  to  the  driver. 
There  are  other  matters  for  your  study.  Thus 
far  we  have  spoken  chiefly  with  reference  to  the 
simple  full  swing.  This  swing  has  to  be  used 
with  certain  modifications  when  driving  with  or 
against  a  strong  wind,  or  when  the  lie  is  bad  or 
sloping.  The  ball  which  the  beginner  finds  easiest 
of  all  to  hit  is,  perhaps,  the  ball  which  lies  up-hill 
— i.  <?.,  on  a  slope  which  tends  upwards  in  the 
direction  of  the  intended  line  of  the  drive.  The 
ball  which  chiefly  bothers  the  uninitiated  is  the 
ball  which  lies  "hanging,"  i.  c,  on  a  slope  tend- 
ing  downward  in  the  direction  of  the  drive.  The 
great  thing  to  remember  when  this  practical 
problem  is  before  you  is  that  the  head  of  the  club 
has  to  travel  over  the  surface  of  the  sloping 
ground  as  if  (he  ground  were  flat.  The  direction 
of  the  swing  urns'  suit  itself  to  the  incline  of  the 
ground.  Therefore  it  appears  that  the  club-head 
must  be  traveling  somewhat  downward  when  it 
meets  a  hanging  ball.  The  result  is  to  hit  the 
ball  rather  downward.  This  js  undesirable,  and 
tin-  best  way  out  of  the  difficulty  is  to  use  a  rather 


Bfcucational  61 

spooned  club.  Most  beginners  recognize  this ; 
but  what  they  cannot  bring  themselves  to  recog- 
nize is  that  they  must  allow  the  spoon  on  the  club 
to  do  the  raising  of  the  ball.  They  find  it  very 
hard  to  get  it  out  of  their  heads  that  they  have  to 
do  some  remarkable  gymnastic  or  conjuring  feat 
with  their  wrists  in  order  to  lift  the  ball.  If  they 
would  but  be  content  to  simplify  the  stroke,  play- 
ing it  as  if  the  ball  lay  level,  except  that  the  club- 
head  is  made  to  travel  downward  rather,  as  it 
hits  the  ball,  so  as  to  adapt  its  direction  to  that 
of  the  ground,  then  they  would  astonish  them- 
selves by  the  ease  with  which  they  played  the 
stroke  which  before  had  seemed  so  difficult.  In 
golf,  as  in  most  arts,  the  simplest  means  are  the 
best.  You  should  try  to  make  the  game  as  easy 
for  yourself  as  possible. 

The  same  rule  applies  to  driving  down  and 
against  the  wind.  Of  course,  down  wind  you 
wish  to  drive  high — against  the  wind  you  wish  to 
drive  low.  Going  down  wind,  then,  tee  the  ball 
high  on  rather  rising  ground — then  the  club,  travel- 
ing over  the  surface  of  the  ground,  will  be  rising 
as  it  meets  the  ball  and  will  naturally  drive  it 
high.  Against  the  wind  tee  low,  and,  preferably, 
on  a  slight  downward  incline.  Of  course  there 
are  other  methods.     When  the  ball  is  lying  with 


62  <3olf. 

a  hill  in  front,  the  skilful  player  will  slice  it  some- 
what with  an  inward  draw  of  the  hands,  so  that 
the  ball  may  rise  quickly  and  so  clear  the  hill. 
Or  if  he  wishes  to  keep  the  ball  low,  when  the 
wind  is  against  and  there  is  no  high  obstacle  to 
clear,  he  will  bring  his  hands  forward  to  the  left 
of  his  body — thereby  turning  the  face  of  the  club 
rather  downward,  and  thus  driving  a  wind-cheat- 
ing skimmer.  But  these  are  niceties  which  the 
beginner  will  pick  up  as  he  goes  along,  and  had 
better  not  bother  himself  by  studying. 

But  there  is  a  modification  of  the  full  swing 
which  it  behooves  him  to  learn  early,  it  is  so  con- 
stantly useful,  and  that  is  the  jerking  stroke  from 
a  bad  lie.  The  essence  of  this  stroke  is  that  the 
club-head  is  traveling  downward  somewhat  at  the 
moment  at  which  it  strikes  the  ball.  But  it  is  not 
traveling  downward  in  order — as  when  the  ball 
lay  hanging — to  travel  on  over  the  surface  of  the 
ground  after  meeting  the  ball,  but  in  order  that 
it  shall  not  be  arrested  by  the  lip  of  the  cup  in 
which  the  ball  is  lying.  The  club-head  has  to  nip 
in  between  this  lij>  and  the  ball;  and  in  order  to 
do  this  it  must  be  traveling  rather  in  a  downward 

direction.  It,  then  goes  on  into  the  ground,  cut- 
ting up  a  lid  of  turf  and  being  rather  arrested 
with    a   jerk   in   the    ground —whence   its    name. 


JEDucattonal  63 

Note  this — the  reason  of  its  name — and  do  not  be 
misled  into  the  idea  that  there  has  been  any 
jerkiness  in  the  motions  of  the  swing.  The  swing 
has  to  be  as  truly  a  swing,  and  with  as  even  mo- 
tions, until  the  ball  is  struck,  as  in  the  ordinary 
drive.  It  is  only  in  the  meeting  of  the  club  and 
ground  that  the  jerk  occurs.  Therefore  all  the 
rules  which  were  laid  down  for  the  full  swim*1 

o 

apply  to  the  swing  for  this  jerking  shot  equally. 
Your  arms  may  even  be  allowed  to  go  away  after 
the  ball,  just  as  in  that  other  stroke,  in  spite  of 
the  jerk  of  the  club  in  the  ground.  It  is  true  your 
right  foot  may  with  advantage  be  a  little  more 
advanced,  because  so  you  are  better  able  to  bring 
the  club  straightly  down  upon  the  ball ;  and  you 
may,  perhaps,  grip  somewhat  tighter  with  your 
right  hand.  But  remember  you  do  not  want  to 
see  how  straight  down  you  can  bring  the  club. 
Your  aim  should  rather  be  the  reverse,  to  see  how 
much  you  can  sweep  the  club-head  along  the 
ground — in  the  manner  recommended  for  the 
drive — consistently  with  getting  it  to  strike  fair 
on  the  ball  without  spending  the  greater  part  of 
its  force  on  the  lip  of  the  cup.  The  best  practical 
maxim  is  to  hit  in  as  much  the  manner  in  which 
you  would  hit  a  teed  ball  as  possible,  considering 
the  lie  of  the  ball. 


04  <3olf 

This  stroke,  it  is  very  plain,  requires  great 
accuracy.  The  club-head  has  just  to  clear  the  lip 
of  the  cup  and  yet  not  to  hit  the  ball  on  the  top. 
It  is,  therefore,  more  necessary  in  this  stroke 
than  in  any  other  to  keep  the  eye  firmly  on  the 
ball  all  through  the  swing — and  not  merely  to 
keep  the  eye  "on  the  ball,"  which  would  seem  to 
mean  on  the  top  of  the  ball,  but  on  that  exact 
spot  on  the  ball  which  we  hope  will  be  the  point 
of  impact. 

It  so  often  happens  that  the  iron  clubs  are 
used  out  of  bad  lies  that  many  good  players 
are  in  the  habit  of  jerking,  in  this  manner,  all 
their  iron  shots.  Most  find  themselves  able  to  hit 
the  ball  straighter  and  with  more  control,  and 
certainly  quite  as  far,  in  this  method.  But  we 
also  see  very  fine  iron  players  who  hit  the  ball 
clean,  without  jerking,  so  we  may  leave  it  as  a 
matter  of  taste  without  dispute. 

You  will  generally  find  that  the  shorter  the 
club  which  a  good  player  has  in  his  hand  the  more 
will  his  right  foot  be  advanced  and  the  more  will 
he  be  gripping  the  club  with  his  right  hand.  In 
the  methods  of  the  majority  of  St.  Andrews  pro- 
fessionals this  is  so.  The  shorter  the  club  in  their 
hand  and  the  shorter  the  stroke  to  he  played,  the 
nearer  does  the  right  toot  come  to  the  ball   until, 


Educational  C5 

in  the  case  of  the  late  Young  Tommy  Morris,  one 
used  to  wonder  that  his  putter  did  not  sometimes 
hit  his  right  toe. 

"We  may  leave  the  beginner  to  apply,  as  best 
he   may,   these   instructions   for   the   full  swing 
(whether  carried  smoothly  through  or  checked  by 
jerking  in  the  ground)  to  all  the  full  swings  shots, 
whether  with  driver,  brassey,  cleek,  iron,  baffy, 
or  mashie  ;  but  it  will  be  well  to  give  him  another 
position    for    the    three-quarter    shot    with  •  the 
iron — and  this  position  for  the  three-quarter  shot 
will  serve  him,  with  modifications,  for  the  half 
shot,  quarter  shot,  wrist  shot  and  even,  if  it  so 
please  him,  for  the  putt.     For  convenience  it  will 
be  as  well  to  say  at  once  that  what  we  mean  by 
the  three-quarter  shot  is  the  shot  which  is  re- 
quired at  such  a  distance  that  the  player's  full 
iron  shot  would  carry  him  just  a  little  too  far. 
The  difference  in  swing  between  a  full  shot  and  a 
three-quarter  shot  we  may  say  to  be  that,  whereas 
in  the  full  shot  the  left  shoulder  swings  down  and 
round  on  the  backbone  for  a  pivot,  in  the  three- 
quarter  shot  the  shoulders  practically  do  not  turn 
at  all.     It  is  a  stroke  played  almost  entirely  with 
the  arms  and  with  movements  of  the  lower  parts 
of  the  body — the  legs  and  hips.     Of  course  the 
shoulders  are  not  rigid  ;  they  give  with  the  other 
5 


ce>  Golf 

motions,  but  they  do  not  take  a  very  actively  en- 
ergetic part.  (We  do  not  insist  on  this  as  the 
only  correct  or  possible  definition  of  the  three- 
quarter  stroke,  but  we  find  it  convenient  to  adopt 
it,  and  think  that  it  fairly  describes  the  stroke 
ordinarily  so  named.) 

The  feet  should  be  nearer  together  than  in  the 
full  swing,  and  the  right  foot  should  be  rather  in 
advance  of  the  left — by  which  we  mean  that  a 
line  drawn  from  the  toe  of  the  left  foot  to  the  toe 
of  the  right  foot,  and  towards  the  player's  right, 
would  soon  meet  a  prolongation  backward  of  the 
proposed  lino  of  flight  of  the  ball.  The  ball  also 
should  be  not  so  much  towards  the  player's  left 
as  was  recommended  for  the  driving  stroke,  but 
about  midway  between  the  feet,  and,  for  choice, 
rather  nearer  the  right  foot.  The  club  may  be 
gripped  rather  tighter  with  the  right  hand  than 
was  advised  for  the  drive;  and,  with  these  differ- 
ences, the  stroke  may  be  allowed  to  be  very  sim- 
ilar. The  club  should  be  brought  away  from  the 
ball  well  along  the  ground,  the  anus  being  allowed 
t<>  go  out  pretty  straight.  Again,  the  upward 
part  of  the  sv.  ing  must  be  in  a  certain  harmonious 
relation,  with  regard  to  its  speed,  to  the  down- 
ward part.  Again,  it  must  be  allowed  to  swing 
itself  out  behind  the  back,  like  the  line  of  the  lly 


BOucatfcmal  67- 

fisher,  before  being  brought  back  ;  and,  again,  the 
turn  of  the  body  at  the  hips,  the  knuckling  in  of 
the  left  knee,  and  the  rising  off  the  left  heel  must 
be  allowed  to  follow  the  swing  of  the  arms  rather 
than  be  made  actively  to  encourage  it.  Again, 
the  eye  must  be  kept  well  on  the  ball  and  the 
arms  be  sent  out  after  the  ball  is  struck.  So,  in 
all  this,  the  three-quarter  stroke  bears  great  re- 
semblance to  the  full  drive — why,  then,  should  it 
be  so  difficult? 

For  it  is  fairly  generally  admitted  that  this  is 
the  most  difficult  of  all  golfing  strokes — the  dis- 
tance  most  generally  abhorred  even  by  good 
players.  We  are  inclined  to  think  that  a  fre- 
quent reason  of  failure  is  in  the  peculiar  difficulty 
of  letting  the  upward  swing,  in  this  stroke,  finish 
itself  well  out  before  the  downward  swing  is 
commenced.  The  shoulders  are  not  working 
freely,  but  are  kept  rather  stiff  and  taut ;  and 
this,  we  are  inclined  to  think,  disposes  the  player 
to  hurry  back  just  a  little — to  give  a  little  jerky 
twitch  which  disturbs  the  smoothness  and  ac- 
curacy of  aim.  Therefore,  our  advice  to  the 
beginner  would  be  to  take  note  of  this  danger, 
and  be  forewarned  against  it,  and  be  particularly 
careful  in  this  three-quarter  shot  to  let  the  up- 
ward swing  finish  itself  well  out. 


OS  <Bolf 

Young  Tommy  Morris  used  to  say  that  many 
amateurs  found  it  peculiarly  difficult  to  keep 
their  eye  on  the  ball  when  playing  iron  shots 
because  the  glittering  face  of  the  iron  attracted 
their  unpractised  eyes  to  follow  it  when  it  left 
the  ball.  Make  this  again,  then,  a  special  matter 
of  study — that  you  keep  your  eye  steadfastly  on 
the  ball  in  your  iron  shots  and  in  all  your  ap- 
proach shots.  Some  players  go  so  far  as  to  leave 
the  faces  of  their  irons  all  unpolished,  that  there 
may  be  no  evilly -attractive  glitter  ;  but  this  is 
an  extreme  measure,  and  is  a  confession  of  weak- 
ness which  ought  to  be  overcome. 

Nearly  all  the  professionals  play  their  approach 
iron  shots  with  a  jerk — that  is  to  say,  the  club- 
head  goes  on  down  into  the  ground  and  cuts  out 
a  divot.  The  divot  which  the  professional  cuts 
out  is  generally  a  solid  slab,  and  if  it  is  replaced 
with  care  will  do  little  damage  to  the  turf  in  its 
ordinary  condition.  Far  more  harmful  are  those 
little  scrapes  off  of  the  grass  which  the  duffer 
makes  in  missing  the  shots  which  he  intends  to 
take  clean.  These  bruise  and  scatter  the  roots  ; 
the  other  is  generally  in  the  nature  of  a  clean  cut 
which  goes  beneath  the  roots. 

lint,  our  object  in  mentioning  this  idiosyncrasy 
of  the  majority  of  professional  players  is  to  assure 


jEDucational  69 

the  beginner  that  there  is  no  magic  virtue  in  thus 
cutting  up  the  divot.  This  is  a  needful  warning, 
for  we  have  actually  heard  a  beginner,  who  was 
intent  on  this  sincerest  form  of  flattery  of  the 
professional,  say  proudly  :  "  It  is  a  poor  shot,  but 
I  don't  care ;  I  cut  out  the  divot." 

As  if  that  mattered !  The  professional  does 
not  care  a  bit  about  cutting  out  the  turf ;  his  ob- 
ject was  to  get  near  the  hole,  and  it  so  happened 
that  the  jerking  method  was  the  way  in  which 
he  was  accustomed  to  play  the  approach  stroke. 
But  in  all  probability  the  amateur  who  did  not 
begin  to  play  golf  as  a  boy  will  find  that  trying 
to  jerk  the  ball  adds  greatly  to  the  difficulty  of 
the  stroke.  For  him  it  will  appear  infinitely 
easier  to  take  the  ball  clean.  On  every  account, 
therefore,  he  ought  to  do  so ;  both  because  he 
will  so  make  better  strokes,  and  also  because  he 
will  not  do  nearly  so  much  damage  to  the  green. 
But  if  the  beginner  finds  the  approach  stroke 
with  the  iron,  however  he  tries  to  play  it,  of  great 
difficulty,  by  all  means  let  him  try  whether  he 
can  do  better  with  a  baffy,  or  wooden  spoon. 
There  is  nothing  illegal  or  morally  disgraceful, 
as  modern  golfers  seem  inclined  to  think,  about 
approaching  with  a  Avooden  club  ;  and,  in  fact, 
many  very  fine  players  of  the  old  school  used  to 


TO  <3olf 

approach  with  nothing  but  wood.  Only  here 
and  there — once  in  a  round,  perhaps — will  a 
stroke  present  itself  to  you  which  a  spooned 
wooden  club  will  not  accomplish  ;  in  such  a  case, 
say,  as  is  presented  by  a  bunker  immediately  be- 
fore the  hole  and  hazardous  ground  beyond  it. 
Here  the  wooden  club  will,  perhaps,  hardly  land 
you  dead  enough,  you  will  need  a  laid-back  iron 
or  a  mashie. 

Some  years  ago  there  was  a  great  prejudice 
against  clubs  much  laid  back.  They  were  con- 
sidered very  uncertain,  and  in  most  cases  men 
tried  to  stop  the  ball  dead  by  putting  cut  upon 
it,  by  means  of  drawing  the  head  of  the  iron 
across  the  ball  at  the  moment  of  impact.  Many 
good  players,  especially  professionals,  use  this 
stroke  now,  but  with  most  players  it  is  being 
superseded  by  the  use  of  much-lofted  clubs — 
mashies,  light  irons,  or  approaching  cleeks.  We 
are  inclined  to  think  that  of  all  these  the  ap- 
proaching cleek  is  the  most  easy  for  the  beginner 
to  play  with.  Tt  seems  to  look  at  the  ball  in 
a  more  straightforward,  simple  way  than  the 
mashies  and  irons,  whose  faces  always  seem  to 
present  themselves  ;it,  somewhat  of  an  angle  to 
the  direction  in  which  the  ball  ought  to  go  ;  in  a 
word,  it  seems  easier  to  play  straight  with  them. 


^Educational  71 

The  raashie  is,  of  course,  rather  a  dangerous  tool 
in  the  hands  of  a  tyro,  because  it  has  so  small  a 
face.     There  is  but  little  margin  for  error. 

Nevertheless,  despite  this  word  in  favor  of  the 
approaching  cleek,  the  iron  is,  of  course,  the  or- 
thodox and  recognized  weapon  with  which  to  ap- 
proach the  hole.  When  the  distance  is  less  than 
that  for  which  the  three-quarter  stroke  is  used,  it 
is  commonly  called  a  half-shot  distance.  Xow,  it 
must  be  said  that  the  three-quarter,  half,  quarter 
and  wrist  shots  are  on  a  nicely  graduated  scale, 
so  that  a  man  could  hardly  say  with  certainty  at 
what  distance  one  leaves  off  and  another  begins. 
So,  too,  with  the  strokes — a  man  could  hardly  tell 
you  whether,  on  a  certain  occasion,  he  were  play- 
ing a  three-quarter  or  a  half  shot.  The  names 
are  rather  arbitrary,  and  do  not  correspond  to 
any  very  clearly-defined  differences  ;  but  roughly 
we  may  differentiate  the  strokes  as  follows  : — 
When  you  are  just  a  little  too  near  the  hole  for 
the  three-quarter  stroke,  you  will  use  the  half 
shot.  The  half  shot  is  played  similarly  to  the 
three-quarter  shot,  save  that  it  is  executed  by  the 
arms  working  from  the  elbow-joints  only.  Other 
motions,  such  as  the  turning  in  of  the  left  knee 
and  rising  on  the  ball  of  the  left  foot,  do  but  fol- 
low on  in  such  a  way  as  not  to  check  the  motions 


72  Golf 

of  the  fore-arms,  which  are  the  active  agents  of 
the  swing.  In  the  quarter  shot — a  shorter  dis- 
tance again — little  part  is  taken  in  the  swing  by 
the  arms  above  the  wrists.  This  is,  in  fact,  a 
wrist-stroke  ;  but  it  may  be  distinguished  from 
the  wrist-stroke  proper  by  the  fact  that  the  mo- 
tions of  the  lower  limbs  are  allowed,  as  before,  to 
follow  the  swing  ;  whereas  the  strict  wrist-stroke 
may  be  said  to  be  one  in  which  the  player  is 
practically  motionless,  save  for  his  hands  and 
wrists,  with  which  alone  the  stroke  is  played. 
This  last,  therefore,  is  only  useful  for  a  very  short 
loft. 

But  these  distinctions,  as  Ave  have  said,  are 
quite  arbitrary — it  is  open  for  any  other  to  define 
the  strokes  differently — but  we  do  believe  that  it 
will  be  of  service  to  the  learner  to  be  conscious 
of  some  more  or  less  definite  difference  in  the 
methods  for  playing  strokes  of  these  different 
Lengths,  otherwise  he  will  be  all  too  apt  to  play 
them  with  a  kind  of  small  section  of  the  full 
swing,  quite  without  method,  and  so  be  little 
likely  to  improve. 

The  shorter  the  stroke,  the  nearer  the  ball  the 

player  should  stand,  and  for  veiy  short  strokes 
many  players  are  in  the  habit  of  shortening  their 
grip  on   the  club  -in   some  cases  lowering  the 


^Educational  73 

right  hand  even  below  the  leather  of  the  handle. 
It  is  well,  too,  as  the  distance  becomes  shorter,  to 
have  the  ball  more  to  the  right — nearer  the  right 
toe.  Where  the  problem  is  to  pitch  the  ball  very 
dead,  it  will  be  found  that  this- may  be  best  solved 
by  holding  the  club  rather  loosely  in  the  hand — ■ 
the  looser  the  better,  always  provided  you  are 
able  to  combine  the  looseness  with  accuracy.  A 
rather  straight  up  and  down  swing  will  also  tend 
to  make  the  ball  go  high  and  to  fall  dead  on 
alighting. 

The  methods  for  putting  cut  on  the  ball  are  so 
very  difficult,  both  of  description  and  of  execu- 
tion, that  we  prefer  to  leave  the  beginner  with 
the  much-lofted  club  in  his  hand,  or  to  recom- 
mend to  him  oral  and  practical  instruction  from  a 
professional  player.  JMoreover,  by  the  time  he  is 
thinking  of  such  niceties  he  will  be  rather  beyond 
the  "  beginner  class." 

There  remain  but  two  clubs  in  the  set  whose 
use  we  have  not  touched  on — the  niblick  and  the 
putter.  As  the  former  is  the  least  palatable  sub- 
ject, let  us  first  dispose  of  it.  The  niblick,  as  no 
one  can  play  golf  long  without  learning,  is  de- 
signed for  getting  you  out  of  a  bunker.  Whether 
it  is  well  designed  for  the  purpose  it  has  occurred 
to  many  to  doubt,  but  that  is  chiefly  by  reason 


74  Golf 

of  their  own  misuse  of  it.  If  you  are  in  a  whin, 
or  in  very  heavy  grass,  the  getting  out  presents 
no  special  features.  You  have  to  hit  the  ball  a 
heavy,  brutal  blow  which  shall  rend  away  all 
obstacles.  "  Get  well  under  the  ball  "  exhausts 
nearly  all  the  professional  coach's  advice  in  such 
straits.  But  a  frequent  case  in  which  the  niblick 
is  called  in  is  that  of  a  ball  lying  in  the  sand  of  a 
bunker  and  with  the  bunker  cliff  before  it.  The 
method  of  treatment  suitable  for  this  stroke  differs 
from  the  method  of  all  other  strokes  ;  for  in  this 
case  }rou  must  not  endeavor  to  hit  the  ball,  but  to 
hit  downward  into  the  sand  some  two  inches  or 
so  behind  the  ball.  The  precise  distance  behind 
must  depend  on  the  nature  of  the  sand.  If  the 
sand  be  very  light  you  can  afford  to  hit  quite 
three  inches  behind  the  ball.  Or  if  the  sand  be 
very  heavy  you  will  hare  to  hit  into  it  not  more 
than  one  inch  behind  the  ball.  Of  course,  in  the 
former  case — of  very  loose  sand — yon  will  be  able 
to  loft  the  ball  much  more  perpendicularly — you 
will  be  able  to  get  so  much  better  under  it.  If 
ilif  ball  is  lying  hard,  a  very  moderate  bunker 
cliff  will  be  an  insurmountable  obstacle. 

It  is  not  at  all  easy  to  hit  just  the  right  distance 
behind  the  hall,  and  the  only  way  to  he  at  all 
certain  of  the  stroke  is  to  keep  your  eye  fixed 


jEDucatlonat  75 

not  on  the  ball  itself  but  on  the  exact  spot  behind 
the  ball  which  you  propose  for  cleavage  by  your 
niblick.  This  sounds  very  simple,  but  in  reality 
it  is  very  difficult ;  for  it  is  to  be  hoped  you  will 
have  become  pretty  well  accustomed  to  looking 
at  the  ball  when  you  prepare  to  strike  it ;  and  you 
will  certainly  find  that  the  force  of  habit  makes 
it  very  hard  for  you  not  to  lift  your  eye  from  the 
little  speck  of  sand  and  transfer  it  to  the  ball. 
To  realize  the  difficulty  is  the  best  help  towards 
overcoming  it. 

Thus,  in  coarse  of  time,  you  may  hope  to  reach 
the  putting-green,  or,  if  but  on  the  edge  of  the 
green,  you  may  run  the  ball  up  with  the  putter, 
or  with  the  iron  laid  with  its  face  over  so  as  to 
push  the  ball  along  the  surface  of  the  ground. 
For  this  is  a  useful  stroke  to  learn,  the  hands 
are  brought  well  forward  to  the  player's  left ; 
the  ball  is  opposite  his  right  toe,  so  that  the  face 
of  the  iron  becomes  almost  upright  as  it  meets 
the  ball.  Then,  with  stiff  wrists,  the  club  is 
pushed  out,  along  the  ground,  away  from  the  ball 
and  dragged  forward  again,  still  with  stiff  wrists, 
with  a  slow,  pushing  stroke  somewhat  like  a 
slow  forward  stroke  at  cricket.  This  stroke  is 
often  useful  when  there  is  some  rough  ground  to 
go  over  just  before  the  ball,  and  then  a  clear  run 


76  (Bolt 

up  to  the  hole.  But  if  the  ground  be  level  and 
clear  of  hazards  all  the  way,  there  is  no  better 
club  than  a  wooden  putter.  Even  if  the  ground 
be  rough  there  is  scarcely  a  better  club,  if  the 
roughness  consist  of  small,  ill-defined  hummocks ; 
for  in  this  case  it  is  impossible  to  know  on  which 
side  of  a  hummock  a  lofted  shot  will  pitch.  If 
the  ball  pitch  on  the  up-hill  it  will  stop  dead, 
but  if  it  pitch  on  the  down-hill  it  will  run  like  a 
hare.  Therefore,  on  ground  of  this  nature,  unless 
there  be  beyond  it  a  fairly  level  spot  on  which 
your  lofted  approach  may  light,  a  putter  is  better, 
because  you  can  strike  a  rough  average  of  the 
bumps  which  your  ball  is  likely  to  get  and  regulate 
the  strength  accordingly.  A  wooden  putter  is 
better  for  the  long  putt  and  for  the  putt  over  rough 
ground  than  the  iron  putter,  because  the  latter 
seems  to  keep  the  ball  closer  to  the  ground  and 
makes  it  so  much  the  more  liable  to  kicks  and 
ill-treatment.  But  this  same  quality  of  the  iron 
putter  seems  to  m;tkc  it  the  more  desirable  weapon 
when  you  are  near  the  hole  or  on  a  very  true 
green  ;  for  the  close  grip  of  the  ground  which  it 
Seems  to  give  the  bull  makes  the  hitler  all  the 
more  likely  to  go  into  the  hole  if  it  come  across 
it  when  going  rather  si  rong. 
And,  in  fact,  we  set;  many  players  use  a  wooden 


]£C>ucattonal  77 

putter  for  their  long  putts  and  an  iron  one  for 
holing  out.  But  all  this  is  in  a  great  measure  a 
matter  of  fancy  and  of  confidence,  as  is  all  put- 
ting. Some  men  play  quite  long  approach  putts 
with  iron  putters,  and  play  them  very  well ;  but 
it  would  appear  that  for  approaching  over  rough 
ground  with  the  iron  putter  it  is  best  to  hold  the 
club  rather  lightly  in  the  grip.  Then  the  ball 
runs  more  boundingly  and  with  less  of  the  tight 
hold  of  the  ground. 

But  of  all  putting,  even  more  than  of  the  rest 
of  the  game,  it  is  true  that  the  great  difficulty  is 
to  hit  the  ball  correctly  ;  and  the  great  secret  for 
hitting  the  ball  correctly  is  to  keep  the  eye  on 
the  ball.  AYe  fancy  that  few  golfers  realize  how 
easy  it  is  to  miss-hit  a  putt.  The  results  are  not 
so  glaring  as  in  the  case  of  a  missed  drive,  but 
we  are  only  the  more  likely,  on  that  account,  to 
go  on  with  our  missing  and  say  that  our  "  eye  is 
out,"  or  that  we  are  "  bilious,"  when  really  the 
trouble  is  that  we  do  not  realize  that  we  are  con- 
tinually topping,  heeling  or  teeing  our  putts. 
Evidence  to  confirm  this  will  be  seen  in  the  fact 
that  a  man  who  is  quite  off  his  putting  with  his 
usual  putter  will  often  take  another  club  and 
find  himself  putting  quite  well  with  it.  Why  is 
this  ?    Simply  because  with  the  unfamiliar  weapon 


78  Golf 

he  unconsciously  feels  a  greater  difficulty  in  hit 
ting  the  ball  true,  and  to  effect  this  gets  his  errant 
eye  back  to  the  ball  again. 

But  he  should  on  no  account  quarrel  with  the 
result  because  he  has  found  out  the  reason.  By 
all  means  let  him  go  on  putting  with  the  club  lie 
can  play  with  best.  The  magic  will  have  gone 
from  it  in  a  day  or  two.  Let  him  enjoy  the 
novelty  while  he  may.  It  is  always  good  to  have 
au  alternative  putting  Aveapon — a  second  string 
when  the  first  is  out  of  tune. 

Of  putting  there  are  as  many  styles  as  there 
are  golfers,  almost.  Men  putt  badly  in  all  styles 
and  well  in  all  styles.  A  few  general  maxims 
will  suffice  on  a  point  on  which  it  is  so  impossible 
to  dogmatize.  The  best  putters  have  seemed  to 
us  to  draw  the  putter  well  back  from  the  ball 
before  striking  it,  so  that  they  have  hit  a  smooth 
blow  without  jerk.  A  great  thing  is  to  find  out 
the  position  in  which  it  is  most  easy  for  you  to 
make  the  putter  travel  straight  as  it  hits  the  ball 
■ — not  in  too  much  of  a  circle.  Bring  your  putter 
home,  and  study  out  this  problem  on  the  lines 
of  the  carpet  or  of  the  boards  of  the  floor.  It 
will  not  be  wasted  time.  Imagine  the  ball  to  be 
on  a  certain  spol  on  the  line,  and  try  to  see  how 
you  can  most  easily  get  the  putter-head  working 


BDucational  79 

along  the  line  both  to  right  and  left  of  the  spot. 
If  the  putter -head  is  moving  straight  when  it 
meets  the  ball,  the  ball  will  not  go  crooked. 

Unfortunately  you  do  not  have  a  line  marked 
like  this  on  the  putting-green,  but  it  is  a  good 
plan  to  take  a  line,  looking  from  behind  the  ball, 
with  your  face  towards  the  hole,  and  select  a 
daisy  or  a  salient  blade  of  grass,  and  make  up 
your  mind  that  if  you  can  get  the  ball  to  go  over 
that  you  will  be  in.  If  you  have  an  index  of  this 
kind  near  your  ball  you  will  find  it  less  disturb- 
ing to  glance  at  it  in  adjusting  your  aim  than 
to  be  continually  looking  up  at  the  comparatively 
far-off  hole.  Bat  in  your  approach-putts  we 
would  advise  you  not  to  be  over-careful  in  study- 
ing your  direction,  but  to  get  as  right  as  possible 
the  much  more  important  matter  of  strength. 
In  putts  of  ten  yards  or  over,  golfers  err  much 
more  often  in  the  matter  of  strength  than  of 
direction.  Finally,  remember  the  maxim  which 
should  ever  be  on  the  putter's  lips,  "  Be  up." 


SO  <30lf 


CHAPTER  IY. 

LINKS. 

The  Royal  and  Ancient  Golf  Club  of  St.  Andrews 
is  surely  a  line-sounding  name  ;  yet  it  is  not  one 
whit  too  sonorous  a  title.  Royal,  St.  Andrews  is, 
for  kings  and  princes  have  golfed — indifferently — 
upon  its  green  ;  and  ancient,  because  men,  royal 
and  otherwise,  golfed  there  before  they  began  to 
make  history.  Still,  despite  the  growth  of  South' 
ern  golf,  we  look  to  St.  Andrews  with  pious  ven* 
cration  as  the  alma  mater,  the  fountain  head  of 
golfing  life  and  inspiration. 

She  is  an  austere  parent — one  might  wish  her  a 
few  more  fountains — for  her  soil  is  very  hard  and 
\ci-y  much  cut  up  by  the  irons  of  her  ungrate- 
ful children,  who  arc  all  too  careless  about 
the  replacing  of  the  turf.  Also  the  links  abound 
in  small  braes  or  grassy  faces  in  the  center  of  the 
course;    and  if  you    Lie  close   behind    one   of   these 

your  tale  is  worse  than  that  of  the  wild  knight- 
errant  who  has  wandered  into  the  "  fog  " on  eithei 
side.     This  quality  of  hardness  of  soil,  which  St 


Xfnfts  81 

Andrews  shares  with  Musselburgh,  and  which  is 
due,  one  may  suppose,  to  a  considerable  admix- 
ture of  clay  with  the  sand  of  the  links'  soil,  is  very 
vexing  to  a  player  who  has  been  brought  up  on 
the  softer  turf  of  Prestwick,  Westward  Ho!  or 
Sandwich.  It  is  not  the  best  quality,  in  our  opin- 
ion, for  golf  ;  yet  we  may  bless  the  golfer's  patron 
saint  that  the  St  Andrews  turf  is  thus  constituted, 
for  otherwise  the  whole  links  would  be  a  Sahara, 
They  would  never  stand  the  enormous  amount  of 
play  which  goes  on  upon  them  were  they  of  any 
softer  consistency.  Nevertheless,  St.  Andrews, 
with  every  drawback,  has  noble  links  still ;  they 
are  so  long — a  joy  to  the  long  driver.  There  are 
none  of  those  tremendous  carries  from  the  lie 
which  are  the  feature  of  Sandwich  ;  but  the  holes 
are  laid  out  so  cunningly,  at  just  the  ideal  distances 
apart,  that  an  indifferent  drive  is  almost  as  badly 
punished,  though  it  may  lie  well,  as  a  similar  drive 
at  Sandwich  which  ends  in  bunker.  For  unless  the 
first  drive  be  a  good  one,  it  happens  at  nearly  every 
hole  that  the  player  will  find  himself  a  stroke  to 
the  bad  because  he  has  not  made  himself  for  get- 
ting up  to  the  putting-green  with  his  second  ;  or 
in  the  case  of  the  long  hole,  both  of  outgoing 
and  homecoming,  with  his  third.  This  is  a  merit 
which  St.  Andrews  possesses  beyond  any  other 


82  Golf 

links  which  we  know,  and  it  is  a  merit  which  those 
whose  duty  it  is  to  lay  out  links  should  fully  recog- 
nize and  strive  to  imitate.  Far  too  many  holes  do 
we  see  on  most  links  which  are  of  that  most 
wretched  length — a  drive  and  an  iron  shot,  or  two 
drives  and  an  iron  shot.  This  is  a  wretched  length, 
because  it  admits  of  a  bad  shot  going  un-penalized. 
The  man  who  has  baffed  his  drive  has  but  to  take 
a  longer  club  for  his  next  shot  than  the  oppo- 
nent who  has  hit  a  line  one  ;  and  both  may  be 
on  the  green  in  the  same  number.  But  at  St. 
Andrews  it  is  hardly  ever  so.  Two  really  good 
shots  will  put  the  fine  driver  upon  the  green, 
while  the  opponent,  who  lias  slightly  missed  one 
or  other  shot,  will  be  some  forty  yards  from  the 
hole,  and  will  need  an  heroic  effort  to  get  down 
In  less  than  three  more,  while  the  two  faultless 
drives  leave  this  feat  within  the  range  of  practi- 
cal and  simple  politics. 

This,  we  are  inclined  to  think,  is  the  trans cend- 
ant  beauty  of  St.  Andrews.  Moreover,  most  of 
the  holes  are  remarkably  well  guarded  by  bunkers, 
and  bunkers  of  a  \<tv  fair  sort  ;  for  they  are  deep 
and  rather  hard  at  the  bottom,  so  that  it  almost 
always  happens  that  they  exact  the  penalty  of 
one  stroke  in  the  getting  out.  But  they  very  sel- 
dom exact  more,  unless  the  niblick  shot  be  a  bad 


OUnfts  83 

one,  for  the  lies  in  them  are  never  desperate. 
Most  of  these  bunkers  are  more  or  less  in  the  mid- 
dle of  the  course  and  close  around  the  hole ;  but 
there  is  not  an  unfair  shot  on  the  course.  There 
is  always  good  lying — barring  the  misadventure 
of  lying  behind  a  brae  or  in  an  iron-skelp,  which 
is,  more  or  less,  of  the  machinations  of  the  evil  one 
— if  the  bail  be  well  and  straightly  struck.  On  the 
first  and  last  five  holes  the  putting-greens  are  very 
fine,  and  of  those  towards  the  end  of  the  course 
we  may  say  that,  considering  the  amount  of  play, 
it  is  wonderful  that  they  are  no  worse.  Many 
object  to  the  St.  Andrews  bunkers  that  they  are 
sunken  and  do  not  show  themselves  to  the  player 
at  the  tee;  but  you  will  need  to  be  exceptionally 
fortunate  if  a  few  rounds  do  not  make  you  fairly 
acquainted  with  their  whereabouts.  Some  of  the 
holes  are  on  little  plateaus,  with  banks  towards 
you ;  and  since  the  turf  is  so  hard  that  a  ball  pitch- 
ing on  the  greens  can  hardly  be  made  tc  stay 
there,  the  "  running  up  "  stroke  with  the  iron  is  a 
very  useful  mode  of  approach  to  cultivate. 

The  links  are  in  the  form  of  a  shepherd's  crook, 
with  the  handle  turned  towards  St.  Andrews. 
The  eighth  and  ninth  holes  are  on  the  short  bend 
of  the  crook,  towards  the  town,  and  the  tenth  and 
eleventh  on  the  short  bend  away  from  the  cathe- 


84  <3olf 

dral  city.  Then,  all  the  way  home  you  have  the 
town  revealing  to  yon  tower  after  tower  of  its 
fine  buildings  and  noble  ruins,  which  are  given 
you  as  landmarks  in  the  navigating  directions  of 
your  caddie.  From  the  great  play  upon  it  the 
green  is  wide,  the  whins  which  used  to  hem  in  the 
course  having  become  so  trodden  away  that  it  re- 
quires some  skill  in  going  off  the  line  to  find  them. 
Yet,  still,  the  round  is  not  done  in  small  numbers. 
The  medal  has  never  been  won  in  less  than  82 
strokes ;  and  though  Hugh  Kirkaldy  has  been 
round  in  73,  and  his  brother,  Andrew,  in  74,  these 
are  the  deeds  of  heroes  and  not  of  ordinary  men. 
Bight  across  Scotland,  on  the  west,  is  another 
very  famous  links,  and  very  different  from  St. 
Andrews ;  Frestwick,  in  Ayrshire.  Frestwick 
golf  is  different  from  St.  Andrews  golf.  The  soil 
is  softer — it  is  the  real  links  sand,  with  a  fine 
carpet  of  turf.  Frestwick  is  a  private  course, 
belonging  to  the  members  of  the  club;  audits 
privacy  is  its  salvation,  for  it  could  never  carry 
on  its  existence  under  the  amount  of  play  which 
St.  Andrews  with  difficulty  survives.  Prestwick, 
in  old  days,  was  but  a  twelve-hole  course,  but 
they  were  twelve  of  the  best — some  say  the  very 
best —that  could  be  found  anywhere.  Great  big 
bunkers  and  undulating  sand  hills  to  carry,  with 


Xinfts  85 

holes  in  dells  and  punch-bowls  amongst  the  hills 
were  its  characteristics  in  those  days ;  and  these 
it  still  keeps.  But,  further,  it  has  added  other 
holes  "  beyond  the  wall,"  which  are,  for  the  most 
part,  flat,  with  a  streamlet  menacing  the  crooked 
driver.  But  betwixt  two  level  pastures  runs  a 
portentous  ridge  of  sand  hills,  appropriately  named 
the  "  Himalayas,"  over  which  the  golfer  must 
drive  his  ball  or  pay  fearful  penalties.  On  the 
homeward  journey  the  perils  of  mountains  are 
enhanced  by  the  stream  which  courses  along  their 
feet,  and  which  is  then  on  the  far-side  of  the 
mountain  from  3^011.  It  takes  a  really  good  drive 
to  carry  both  Himalayas  and  burn.  It  is,  of  course, 
possible  to  get  into  the  burn  on  your  outgoing 
shot  over  the  mountain  ;  but  this  can  only  be  done 
by  the  worst  of  "  tops,"  for  you  tee  on  the  very 
brink  of  the  stream.  The  Cardinal's  Xob  is 
perhaps  the  most  famous  of  the  great  bunkers, 
and  probably  it  has  cost  more  strokes  than  any 
other  bunker  into  which  a  golfer  has  ever  got. 
For,  besides  being  deep  and  broad,  it  is  palisaded 
with  boarding  to  keep  the  edges  perpendicular. 
Above  all,  it  does  not  present  itself  as  a  hazard  to 
be  carried  from  the  tee — that  is,  on  its  outo-oins: 
and  more  terrible  aspect,  but  as  a  crux  for  the 
second  shot.     2sow,  many  men  top  the  ball  from 


86  <3olf 

the  tee,  but  more  top  it  from  the  place  which  it 
goes  to  after  the  tee  shot.  Therefore,  we  again 
affirm  it,  more  men  get  into  the  Cardinal's  Xob, 
compared  with  the  number  who  try  to  get  over 
it,  than  into  any  other  bunker  in  the  world.  No 
one  who  has  played  at  Prestwick  will  fail  to  as- 
sociate his  golf  on  these  links  with  the  excitement 
of  running  up  one  of  the  great  hills  to  see  how 
near  the  ball  lias  rolled  to  the  hole  which  is 
known  to  be  in  the  hollow  just  over  the  hill.  And 
the  joy  of  finding  that  your  own  ball  has  rolled 
down  dead,  while  your  adversary's  has  stuck  upon 
the  hill-side,  is  quite  ecstatic.  The  scenery  from 
these  hill-tops  is  less  beautiful  than  the  sight  we 
have  just  conjured  up,  but  only  a  little  less. 
Theiv  is  Arran  in  thedistance,  and  all  the  beauties 
of  the  Clyde  estuary  nearer  at  hand  ;  but,  needless 
to  say,  the  golfer  does  not  look  at  them.  In  the 
dim  distance  is  the  Mull  of  Cantire,  on  which  is 
a.  noble  golf-links.  Machrehanish  is  its  name,  and 
its  natural  golfing  features  are  second  to  none; 
but  as  it  is  as  hard  to  get  to  as  its  name  is  to  spell 
or  to  pronounce,  its  golfers   are  comparatively 

few.      But  nearer  there  are  the  beautiful   links  of 

Troon,  and  it  makes  anice  changefrom  Prestwiek 
to  play  the  first  nine  of  the  Presl  wick  holes,  then 

to   walk   half-a-inile  across   the  bents   to  the  end 


Xinks  87 

hole  of  Troon,  and  finish  your  eighteen  there. 
Then  lunch  at  Troon,  and  play  back  in  reverse 
fashion  in  the  afternoon.  Even  in  Arran,  as  well 
as  in  the  "  adjacent  islands  of  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland,"  there  is  a  golf-links  now ;  and  there  is 
one  as  far  north  as  Kirkwall,  in  the  Orkneys. 

But  of  greater  golf-links  there  are  Dornoch, 
Montrose,  and  Carnoustie — the  last  perhaps  the 
best,  if  the  former-named  will  pardon  our  saying 
it.  If  St.  Andrews  and  Prestwick  were  put 
together  and  then  divided,  you  would  get  a 
result  much  like  Carnoustie.  Its  characteris- 
tics are  in  the  mean  between  the  characteristics 
of  the  other  two,  save  that  its  soil  is,  if  anything, 
lighter  than  Prestwick.  North  Berwick  deserves 
a  high  place  among  Scottish  links,  though  it  is 
too  short  to  be  first-class  ;  but  what  there  is  of 
it  is  so  charming.  There  are  eighteen  holes,  and 
almost  all  of  them  are  little  ones,  but  the  chances 
of  misadventure  are  infinite  in  number  and 
variety.  There  are  stone  walls,  fir  woods,  the 
sea,  the  rocks,  a  turnip-field,  a  quarry,  a  walled 
garden,  bathing  machines,  perambulators,  nurse- 
maids, and  a  horrid  place  just  below  Point  Garry 
which  they  call  the  bear  pit.  Besides  these, 
there  are  plenty  of  bunkers  proper — so  that  when 
all  these  things  are  put  into  smalL  space  the  result 
must  be  sporting.     Finally,  the  putting-greens  are 


SS  Golf 

very  good,  and  the  islands  dotted  in  the  sea  make 
the  scenery  always  delightful. 

Though  Musselburgh  has  never  had  more  than 
nine  holes,  they  are  nine  good  ones  ;  though,  Ave 
fear,  less  good  than  they  used  to  he.  It  is  so 
near  Edinburgh,  and  Edinburgh  is  the  home  of 
many  a  golfer.  The  whins  are  trodden  away, 
almost  to  vanishing  point ;  but  the  bunkers,  in- 
cluding the  famous  Pandy,  are  as  formidable. as 
ever.  A  great  deal  of  very  good  golf  is  played 
at  Musselburgh  even  now.  It  is,  moreover,  one 
of  the  greens  on  which  the  Open  Championship 
used  to  be  played — St.  Andrews  and  Prestwick 
being  the  others.  But  the  Honorable  Company 
of  Edinburgh  Golfers  has  now  removed  and 
taken  the  Open  Championship  with  it,  from 
Musselburgh  to  Muirfield,  further  down  the  Forth, 
where  its  members  will  find  liner  turf  and  fewer 
golfers.  All  this  Forth  coast  is  golf-links.  Luff- 
ness  is  remarkably  fine,  and  Gullane  scarcely  less 
so.  Near  North  Berwick  is  Archierfield,  and  now 
Muirfield  is  laid  under  the  golfer's  requisition  too. 

And  so  we  may  Leave  Scotland,  with  many 
apologies  to  the  many  noble  links  of  which  Lack 
of  space  obliges  us  to  refrain  from  speaking. 

Blackheath,  the  oldest  of  all  English  Golf  Clubs 

indeed,  the  club  whose  legends  go  further  back 


Xfnfts  80 

than  even  those  of  the  Royal  and  Ancient — is 
not  all  that  its  traditions  seem  to  promise.  There 
are  seven  very  long  holes,  but  the  soil  is  flinty, 
the  lies  are  not  good,  roads  are  the  chief  hazards, 
and  unsympathetic  passers-by  are  ubiquitous. 

Wimbledon  is  still,  Ave  think,  the  best  course 
near  London,  despite  the  growth  of  Chorley 
Wood,  Tooting,  Mitcham  and  all  the  rest.  At 
Wimbledon  there  are  real  whins,  a  real  pond  and 
real  reward  for  good  play.  The  lies  are  not  all 
that  one  could  wish,  but  the  putting-greens  are 
sometimes  very  fair ;  and  the  beauty  of  those 
birch-clad  ravines  over  which  we  have  to  drive, 
and  of  the  surrounding  distance,  mellowed  by  the 
suburban  fog,  are  scarcely  to  be  matched  on  links 
much  more  remote  from  the  metropolis. 

Guildford  is  good,  too,  but  this  is  further  away 
and  the  golfer  who  can  go  so  far  as  Guildford 
may  perhaps  be  able  to  spare  the  time  to  seek 
some  of  the  excellent  seaside  links  of  which  Eng- 
land now  has  a  number. 

From  Blackheath  the  love  of  golf  spread  first 
to  Westward  Ho ! — and  what  links  can  beat 
Westward  Ho ! — in  the  beauty  of  its  lies,  its  in- 
definitely large  putting-greens,  its  tremendous 
bunkers,  its  horribly  sharp  rushes  I  There  is  the 
true  seaside  links  turf  in  its  finest  quality.     Xo 


90  <3olf 

where  in  the  world  do  men  so  often  take  the 
driver  for  the  second  shot ;  you  always  lie  teed. 
The  Westward  Ho !  course  used  to  begin  from 
beside  the  old  iron  hut,  planted  amongst  the 
boulders  of  the  pebble  ridge  which  protected  it 
from  the  thundering  sea.  But  now  the  course 
starts  on  the  hither  side  of  that  common,  known 
as  the  Northern  Burrows,  on  which  Amyas  Leigh 
played — but  did  not  play  golf.  So  the  first  tee 
is  handier,  and  nearer  the  golfer's  home ;  and  if 
the  first  three  holes  be  flat,  they  are  not  without 
such  incidents  as  a  burn  to  receive  the  gross  top, 
and  ditches  and  rushes  in  small  patches  to  punish 
subsequent  inaccuracy.  Then  we  come  to  the 
region  of  big  bunkers  and  long  carries  and  assegai- 
like bundles  of  rushes.  Finishing  out  the  round, 
by  way  of  the  flat  country,  the  approach  to  the 
last  hole  is  exceedingly  fine,  for  the  green  is  just 
beyond  a  stream,  somewhat  too  stagnant  to  merit 
its  name  of  burn,  but  planted  so  as  to  try  the 
nerves  of  the  approacher  most,  shrewdly.  But 
the  great  glory  of  the  links  are  the  lies,  which 
are  everywhere  so  fine;  and  it  has  this  additional 
feature,  that  whereas  on  many  a  links  it  is  suf- 
ficient to  drive  far  and  straight,  at  Westward 
Hoi  you  will  often  I'm  i  yourself  driving  for  a 
particular  spot.     You  must  know  how  far  you 


Xinfcs  91 

are  going,  as  well  as  how  straight.  As  a  school 
of  golf  this  is  its  great  value. 

From  Westward  Ho  !  Liverpool  men  conceived 
the  idea  they  might  play  golf  at  Hoylake.  Here- 
tofore it  had,  perhaps,  seemed  scarcely  right — al- 
most sacrilegious — to  the  many  Scotsmen  in 
Liverpool  to  think  of  golf  south  of  the  Tweed. 
But  Hoy  lake  soon  flourished.  There  are  none  of 
the  mighty  carries  there  for  which  Westward 
Ho !  was  then  so  famous,  though  in  that  matter 
its  glory  has  been  eclipsed  by  that  of  Sandwich. 
But  Hoylake  is  a  course  which  makes  the  erratic 
player  pay  fearful  penalties.  Above  everything 
he  must  be  straight.  Then  he  is  rewarded  by 
reaching,  in  due  course,  a  putting-green  which  is 
not  to  be  matched  anywhere.  For  years  the  put- 
ting-greens at  Hoylake  have  been  a  marvel ;  and 
now  that  the  links  are  extended  in  among:  the 
Western  sand-hills,  they  are  no  longer  to  be  called 
flat,  or  without  incident,  even  by  the  sourest 
ca viler.  That  men  can  learn  fine  golf  at  Hoy- 
lake, Messrs.  Johnnie  Ball  and  Hilton  have  proved 
to  us. 

But  if  one  has  heard  it  said  of  Hoylake,  before 
its  extension,  that  it  lacked  variety  and  incident, 
this  complaint  can,  by  no  means,  be  laid  to  the 
charge  of  another  great  English  golf-links,  Sand- 


93  <3olt 

wioh.  Here  Ave  find  bunkers  on  a  colossal  scale  ; 
a  green  committee,  too,  who  are  disposed  to  give 
these  bunkers  their  full  value  by  putting  the  tees 
far,  far  back — too  far  back,  some  say — so  that 
only  the  fine  drives  of  the  fine  driver  will  carry 
them.  This  is  the  links  for  the  strong  man  de- 
lighting in  his  strength ;  for  though  there  be 
by-ways  among  the  bunkers,  marked  by  blue 
flags,  for  the  shorter  driver,  Ave  have  found  our 
hearts  full  of  pity  for  this  poor  man  when  we 
noted  the  doubtful  nature  of  his  path.  But, 
after  all,  avIio,  in  his  heart  of  hearts,  really 
belieATes  himself  to  be  a  short  driver?  All  go 
for  the  long  carries,  and  enjoy  the  struggle. 
Sandwich  is  not  Paradise,  however;  there  are 
bad  places  in  it.  One  or  two  holes  down  by  the 
seaside  are  poor  tilings,  and  the  lies  "  foggy." 
But,  on  the  whole,  it  is  a  noble  course,  and  the 
putting-greens  all  the  more  to  the  credit  of  its 
promoters  that  so  many  of  the  greens  are  arti- 
ficial. The  Maiden,  a  hole  which  m;iy  be  reached 
in  one,  if  that  one  clear  a  really  mountainous 
bunker  cliff,  is  perhaps  the  gem  of  the  course. 
Bui  Hades,  a  somewhat  similar,  though  not 
quite  so  awful,  hole,  is  line,  too.  These  are  fas- 
cinating, but  for  real  golf  we  are  inclined  to 
think  the  fourteenth  is,  perhaps,  the  finest.    It  is 


Xfnfes  93 

long — three  good  shots  will  reach  it,  and  for 
each  shot  there  is  a  hazard  to  carry.  A  brook 
awaits  a  missed  second  shot,  and  there  is  a  bun- 
ker just  before  the  hole.  The  seventeenth,  again, 
is  a  beautiful  hole,  reminding  one  of  the  seven- 
teenth at  Prestwick.  The  second  shot  carries 
you  into  a  great  dell  among  the  hills,  and  you 
pant  to  their  summits  to  see  how  near  the  hole 
your  ball  has  rolled. 

In  point  of  seniority,  Bembridge,  in  the  Isle  of 
Wight,  is  before  Sandwich.  Bembridge  is  very 
good,  but  it  is  very  little.  There  are  but  nine 
holes,  none  of  them  are  very  long,  and  the  course 
criss-crosses  like  a  cat's-cradle.  But  what  there 
is  of  Bembridge  is  so  very  good.  The  lies  are 
good,  the  putting-greens  are  good ;  when  there 
are  not  too  many  golfers,  there  is  scarcely  a  bet- 
ter place  for  golf.  When  the  links  are  at  all 
•crowded  you  are  far  safer  in  a  French  duel,  or 
even  in  a  London  crossing. 

Norfolk  has  good  golf-links.  There  is  Great 
Yarmouth,  and  the  golf  at  Great  Yarmouth  is  of 
very  fine  quality — good  sandy  turf,  fine  putting- 
greens,  menacing  bunkers.  No  man  can  return  a 
good  score  at  Great  Yarmouth  without  playing 
real  good  golf,  and  it  is  the  full  eighteen  holes  in 
length. 


94  (Bolt 

A  little  further  north  is  Cromer — again  good 
golf,  though  not  so  good.  But  better  than  Cromer, 
and  perhaps  better  than  Great  Yarmouth  even,  is 
Braneaster.  The  Brancaster  links  are  a  new  dis- 
covery, but  they  promise  very  great  things;  and, 
though  so  little  has  been  done  to  the  ground,  it 
possesses  such  natural  capabilities  for  golf  that 
the  promise  has  already  begun  to  fulfil  itsel  f.  Even 
now  the  Brancaster  Club  has  played  a  match  with 
Cambridge  University,  and  defeated  the  Cantabs. 

The  Cantabs  have  a  strong  golfing  team.  They 
beat  Oxford  with  ease.  But  both  Universities  are 
to  be  pitied  for  the  quality  of  their  links. 

The  mention  of  all  the  good  golf-links  in  Eng- 
land and  Scotland  would  (ill  a  chapter  with  their 
bare  names.  Alnmouth  is  good,  so  are  Blundell- 
sands,  Lytham,  St.  Anne's  and  a  host  more.  But 
in  Scotland  we  have  not  even  named  Leven,  Elie 
and  Earlsferry  ;  so  we  will  leave  others  with  an 
apology  that  space  does  not  allow  our  speaking  of 
their  merits,  and  see  what  the  layer-out  of  a  new 
links  should  have  in  his  mental  vision  when  lie 
begins  his  hard  task. 

Much,  <>f  course,  depends  on  the  quality  of  the 
ground  and  of  the  hazards.  Difficulties  divide 
themselves  generally  into  too  much  growth  or  too 
little.     The  most  common  problem  is,  perhaps,  to 


%ink6  95 

get  rid  of  whins.  They  must  be  cut  down  and 
the  stubs  kept  flush  with  the  ground,  if  they  are 
not  rooted  up.  The  human  foot  is  a  great  clear- 
ing agent,  and  so  is  the  golfing  niblick.  If  doubt- 
ful whether  to  spare  a  whin  or  to  uproot  it,  err 
rather  on  the  side  of  leaving  it.  Your  golfer  will 
soon  clear  whins  so  throughly  away,  in  grubbing 
after  his  ball  and  in  efforts  to  hit  it,  that  you  are 
soon  likely  to  repent  that  you  did  not  leave  him 
more  of  it  to  do.  Your  links  are  apt  to  become 
too  easy.  But  in  jTour  clearing  or  your  sparing 
you  should  exercise  discretion.  Try  to  arrange 
matters  so  that  there  shall  be  some  hazard  for  the 
teed  shot  to  carry ;  and  this  achieved,  give  the 
successful  driver  his  reward — give  him  a  reason- 
able-sized clear  space  to  lie  on.  The  more  hazards 
you  give  him  to  right  and  to  left  the  better,  but 
the  straight  course  may  also  be  too  narrow.  The 
race-course  at  Wimbledon  is  far  too  narrow  for 
erring  humanity. 

Neither  must  you  make  the  carry  too  severely 
long,  for  there  are  drivers  and  drivers,  and  a  moder- 
ate player  ought  to  have  a  reasonable  chance  of 
carrying  the  obstacle  if  he  hits  a  fair  ball.  Fail- 
ing this,  you  should  give  him  some  bye-way,  by 
which  he  may  stealthily  circumvent  the  hazard, 
though  for  this  pusillanimity  it  is  only  fair  that 


9G  <30lf 

he  should  pay  some  penalty  in  distance.  Of  course 
all  this  applies  equally  to  the  second  shot.  It, 
too,  should,  if  possible,  have  some  hazardous  risks, 
but  it  again  should  have  its  reward  if  it  surmounts 
these  risks  successfully. 

It  is  a  great  thing  to  have  your  holes  well 
guarded  with  hazards  on  the  hither  and  farther 
sides  and  round  about  them.  Of  course  few  holes 
are  thus  completely  circumvallated,  but  you  should 
keep  this  principle  well  in  mind,  for  the  hazards 
will  call  out  the  skill  of  the  approaches  And  all 
this  applies  equally  to  hazards  of  every  nature, 
from  whins  and  sand  bunkers  down  to  rough  rank 
grass.  Often  vou  may  take  advantage  of  a  wall 
or  road  in  the  absence  of  more  legitimate  golfing 
difficulties.  Sometimes  you  may  be  driven  to 
invent  hazards,  by  throwing  up  banks,  cutting 
bunkers  or  planting  bushes.  The  last  is  always 
an  unsatisfactory  method.  Good  golfing  soil  is 
seldom  good  for  vegetation.  It  will  always  be 
necessary  to  fence  round  the  growing  plantation  ; 
and  that  which  it  has  taken  two  years  to  grow,  a 
very  few  golfers  will  destroy  in  a  fortnight.  If 
you  have  to  throwup  banks  it  is  best  to  leave 
broken  the  ground  from  which  you  cut  them  and 
throw  the  bank  up  on  the  further  side  from  the 
Thus   the  ground  itself   becomes 


Xinfcs  97 

part  of  the  hazard.  Do  not  throw  your  banks 
straight  across  the  course,  but  in  a  sinuous  curve, 
for  so  they  are  much  better  golfing  hazards  and 
much  more  pleasing  artistically.  Build  the  bank 
pretty  wide,  so  as  to  give  it  solidity,  and  make 
the  side  from  which  the  player  will  approach  it 
steep,  the  other  side  sloping.  Of  course  you  will 
turf  it — on  the  sloping  side  at  all  events — other- 
wise it  will  soon  crumble  away.  If  the  angle  of 
the  bank  is  so  steep  that  the  new  turfs  will  not 
lie  on  it,  skewer  them  in  with  wooden  stakes,  after 
beating  them  firmly  down  with  the  flat  of  a  shovel. 
But  on  many  links  the  trouble  is  that  the  turf 
is  too  light  and  sandy,  without  sufficient  vegeta- 
tion to  hold  it  together.  This  o-ives  bad  lies  and 
makes  it  liable  to  be  cut  up  ver}T  easily.  There 
is  a  peculiar  kind  of  grass  seed  useful  for  sandy 
soil  of  which  Mr.  Tom  Morris,  at  St.  Andrews, 
has  the  secret — though  perhaps  he  shares  it  with 
Mr.  Sutton,  of  Heading.  It  is  not  very  satisfac- 
tory, however.  It  is  said  to  grow,  but  birds  eat 
it  or  golfers  hack  it  up,  and  there  is  little  re- 
sult. It  is  far  better  to  mend  your  sand  with 
clay.  Get  some  road  scrapings — they  are  the 
best  things  in  the  world  for  this  friable  soil,  for 
they  are  clayey  and  full  of  grass  seed,  and  the 
Local  Board  will  generally  give  them  to  you  for 
7 


98  (3olf 

the  carting  away.  Spread  this  road  scraping 
thinly  over  the  sand  and  the  result  is  sure  to  be 
good.  If  possible  do  this  while  the  scrapings  are 
damp  and  rather  muddy,  and  when  you  think 
there  is  rain  coming — there  is  generally  rain  com- 
ing. Then,  if  you  sow  ordinary  grass  seed  on 
this,  you  will  give  the  soil  a  better  chance. 

Too  much  rolling  is  a  mistake.  On  some  in- 
land links  we  have  seen  the  putting-greens  rolled 
so  much  that  the  watery  mud  had  been  squeezed 
out  of  the  ground  and  had  dried  in  a  thin  cake 
all  over  the  green.  This  makes  a  horrid  surface 
for  putting.  You  want  grass  on  your  putting- 
greens,  as  much  of  it  as  you  can  get,  but  as  short 
as  possible.  If  the  grass  on  your  putting-greens 
is  coarse  and  rank,  sea  sand  sprinkled  on  it  will  do 
much  to  fine  it  down.  But  for  all  sorts  of  coarse- 
ness and  tuftiness  of  turf  there  is  no  amelioration 
equal  to  the  human  foot.  A  dozen  men  playing 
golf  for  a  week  over  a  rough  common  will  make 
a  difference  such  as  no  one  who  has  not  seen  it 
could  believe.  Some  few  soils  may  be  too  tender 
to  bear  the  trampling — may  be  so  sandy  that  even 
the  flat  of  the  foot  will  tear  and  bruise  the  roots. 
Bu1  on  farthe  most  qualities  of  turf  the  tread- 
ing of  feel  has  a  consolidating:  effect  which  no  roll- 
ing  can  equal.     There  comes  a  time  when  turf 


Xmfes  99 

may  grow  to  be  too  solid — too  hard.  In  this 
condition  it  is  what  is  termed  root-bound.  The 
surface  is  packed  so  tight  that  the  young-  blades 
cannot  get  through  it.  Then  it  becomes  neces- 
sary to  give  the  turf  a  rest,  to  water  it  well,  and 
to  prise  it  up,  without  breaking  the  surface  al- 
together, with  a  long-pronged  fork — not  a  dinner 
fork,  but  an  agricultural  instrument.  This 
loosens  the  mold  around  the  roots,  giving  them 
fresh  room  to  expand  and  so  to  put  forth  vigor- 
ous young  blades,  which  will  then  begin  to  push 
up  through  the  surface  thus  loosened.  The  signs 
of  this  root-bound  condition  are  a  thinness  and  a 
general  yellowness  of  the  grass,  as  if  it  were 
parched  by  a  drought,  combined  with  great  hard- 
ness of  soil.  Putting-greens  on  which  there  is 
much  walking  are  especially  liable  to  this  com- 
plaint. 

In  the  laying  out  of  your  putting-greens  you 
should  endeavor  to  have  a  space,  clear  of  haz- 
ards, of  the  size  of  at  least  forty  yards  in  diam- 
eter. The  holes  should  be  shifted  a  yard  or 
two  whenever  the  turf  immediately  around  them 
appears  too  much  worn  or  whenever  the  sides  of 
the  holes  themselves  are  at  all  broken.  Sections 
of  iron  cylinders  let  into  the  holes  will  preserve 
their  shape  much  longer  than  if  they  were  with- 


100  <30lf 

out  this  support;  but  on  no  account  should  the 
rim  of  the  iron  be  above,  or  indeed  quite  flush 
with,  the  edges  of  the  holes,  otherwise  it  will 
tend  to  keep  out  a  well  played  putt.  The  best 
irons  of  all  for  the  holes  are  those  which  have  a 
cross  bar  with  a  hole  in  it  for  the  flag  which  shall 
mark  the  hole.  For  the  flag,  without  this  sup- 
port, keeps  falling  over  against  the  edges  of  the 
holes  and  wearing  them  away.  Any  of  the 
shops  which  supply  golfing  requisites  should 
be  able  to  furnish  you  with  such  irons ;  or  they 
may  easily  be  made,  on  your  description,  by  a 
a  blacksmith. 

The  teeing  grounds  should  be  marked  with 
whitewash,  or,  preferably,  with  discs  of  white- 
washed tin  with  a  long  nail  let  through  them  to 
keep  them  in  the  ground.  We  think  the  discs 
are  preferable  because  they  can  be  easily  re- 
moved, whereas  the  old  whitewash  marks  are  apt 
to  cause  confusion  as  to  the  new  tee.  The  tees, 
like  the  putting-greens,  should  be  changed  when- 
ever the  ground  becomes  at  all  worn. 

Your  teeing  grounds  should  be  as  level  as  pos- 
sible, and  never  hanging — i.e.,  sloping  in  the  direc- 
tion in  which  the  shot  has  to  be  played  from 
them.  On  the  other  hand  a  little  undulation  in 
the  putting-greens  is  desirable,  and  this  should  bo 


Xfnfts  101 

borne  in  mind  if  at  any  time  you  have  to  level  your 
greens.  All  small  knobs  should  be  leveled  down. 
This  is  best  done  by  making  incisions  in  their 
turf  in  the  form  of  a  cross,  and  laving  back  the 
edges  of  the  turf  while  the  soil  is  scooped  out 
from  under  them  with  a  trowel  or  with  the  hand. 
Then  let  the  edges  of  the  turf  be  rolled  back  in 
place  again,  and  you  will  have  a  much  less  serious 
wound  than  tf  you  had  taken  the  turf  bodily  off 
and  replaced  it. 

Finally,  bear  in  mind  in  arranging  the  length 
of  your  holes,  that  great  merit  of  St.  Andrews, 
where  one  or  two  or  three  full  shots,  respectively, 
will  land  the  player  upon  the  green,  while  he 
who  has  at  all  failed  in  any  shot,  will  be  playing 
the  odds  with  an  iron  approach  shot. 


102  oott 


CHAPTER  V 

G0LEEMS    AND    STYLES 

Nothing  is  so  likely  to  make  the  tyro  golfer 
skeptical  of  the  value  of  that  mysterious  quality 
named  ';  style"  us  a  survey  of  the  practises  of 
those  who  have  preceded  him  across  the  pons 
(isi, torn  in,  of  golf.  They  play  in  such  various 
systems  and  there  seems  so  little  relation  between 
their  styles  and  their  success.  Doubtless  wisdom 
is  justified  of  all  her  children — there  is  nothing 
to  be  said  to  them  provided  they  succeed.  Butit 
does  not  follow  from  their  combining  success  with 
eccentricity  that  they  arc  successful  because  they 
are  eccentric.  Rather  it  is  in  spite  of  their  eccen- 
tricity. And  on  a  more  careful  study  the  tyro 
will  observe  a  family  likeness  between  them  all 
-  namely  that  they  have  the  club  moving  in  the 
right  direction  at  tin;  moment  of  its  impact 
with  the  ball — and  it  is  in  this  that  their  inherit- 
ance of  wisdom  consists.  With  this  point  in 
common  their  individual  differences  are  great. 


Goiters  anO  Stales  103 

Man  is  a  very  mimetic  animal.  The  highest 
development  of  man  is  the  golfer,  and  in  the 
mimetic  quality  he  excels  ;  wherein  he  resembles 
his  forefather  the  ape.  For  see  how  the  stamp 
of  individual  golfers  of  genius  has  impressed  itself 
upon  the  general  golf  of  the  locality  in  which 
the  genius  flourished.  The  St.  Andrews  swing, 
even  of  to-day,  still  bears  the  sign  manual  of  poor 
young  "  Tommy  Morris,"  though  it  is  many  years 
since  his  splendid  golling  powers  were  seen  on 
any  links.  The  line  swing  of  Mr.  John  Ball, 
junior,  finds  manifold  reproductions  in  many 
golfers  in  the  neighborhood  of  Iloylake.  Mr. 
Laicllay  has  inspired  a  multitude  of  disciples  with 
the  letter,  if  not  with  the  spirit,  of  that  strange 
style  of  his — so  entirely  "off  the  left  leg" — 
with  which  he  achieves  such  brilliant  results. 

"  Young  Tommy  "  was  a  player  of  the  most 
fascinating  freedom  of  swing.  It  is  sad,  indeed, 
that  we  can  no  longer  see  the  great  original ;  but 
all  that  slashing  elan  which  every  youthful  St. 
Andrews  driver  exhibits  to-day  is  an  inheritance 
bequeathed  by  him.  Mr.  John  Ball's  character- 
istics are  great  firmness  of  stance  upon  the  feet, 
and  a  gripping  of  the  club  with  the  right  hand 
reaching  far  under,  which  is  a  contravention  of 
prescribed  rules,  but  which  seems,   with  him,  to 


104  <3olf 

give  marvelous  power  of  control  over  the  ball 
His  balls  start  away  low  from  the  club  with  a 
whirr  like  a  rocket ;  then  they  rise  toward  the 
end  of  their  flight,  often  with  a  slight  pull  from 
the  right,  and  fall,  after  a  great  carry,  nearly 
dead.  There  are  longer  drivers  than  l\Ir.  John 
Ball,  though  few  have  a  longer  "carry";  but 
this  low  ball  of  his  is  a  beauty  in  the  wind,  and 
it  is  an  ideal  stroke  for  driving  the  ball  up  to  the 
hole  and  landing  it  upon  the  green.  Mr.  Laid- 
lay's  great  merit  is  the  approach  shot.  lie  is 
marvelously  correct  with  all  his  iron  clubs.  In 
all  his  strokes  he  has  the  ball  farther  towards  his 
left,  as  he  addresses  it — almost,  indeed,  to  the  left 
of  his  left  foot — than  any  other  good  golfer. 
Over  and  over  again,  to  the  despair  of  his  oppo- 
nent, will  lie  land  himself  from  somewhere  well 
oil"  the  green — often  from  a  most  dim  cult  lie — 
close  lxside  the  hole.  And  very  often,  when  he 
has  thus  Laid  his  ball  on  the  green,  will  he  hole  a 
Long,  stealing  putt,  grasping  his  putter  very  low 
down  and  bending  forward  to  the  ball — as  if  he 
were  reaching  out  to  play  forward  to  a  rather 
short-pitched  one  ;it  cricket — until  his  back  is 
nearly  horizontal. 

Long  driving  is    a    very    great,   feature  of  the 
»f  golf  to-day.     By  the  trampling  feet  of 


Goiters  ano  Stales  ]05 

many  golfers  courses  have  been  widened — the 
hazardous,  rough  ground  on  either  side  has  been 
worn  smooth — so  that  length  has  come  to  be  of 
greater  value  than  the  straightness,  which  was 
all-important  on  the  narrower  links  of  the  past. 
Allan  Robertson,  that  great  giant  of  the  game  in 
the  days  that  are  gone,  was  no  gigantic  driver. 
It  was  his  accuracy,  combined  with  his  imperturb- 
able sang-froid,  that  pulled  him  through  victori- 
ous in  so  many  fights.  The  same  Avas  the  great 
merit  of  those  renowned  amateur  players,  Ad- 
miral Maitland  Dougal  and  Mr.  George  Glennie, 
of  whom  the  former,  one  stormy  afternoon,  once 
won  the  St.  Andrews  medal  after  having  been 
one  of  the  lifeboat's  crew  which,  in  the  morning, 
rescued  the  survivors  from  a  shipwrecked  vessel. 
Mr.  Glennie's  score  of  S8  was  for  many  years 
the  record  for  the  St.  Andrews  medal  on  that 
straighter  course  on  which  the  old  golfers  used  to 
play.  In  those  days  the  chief  competitors  were, 
perhaps,  Mr.  Hodge,  Colonel  Boothby  and  Mr. 
Gilbert  Mitchell  Innes,  to  the  last  named  of  whom 
especial  credit  is  due  for  the  excellence  of  his 
game,  seeing  that  he  took  up  golf  only  when  his 
days  of  discretion  had  been  reached.  His  is  a 
peculiarly  quiet  and  easy  swing,  which  picks  up 
the  ball  with  wonderful  cleanness.     The  late  Sir 


106  <30lf 

Robert  Hay  was  a  beautiful  player  of  the  sani6 
school ;  and  the  finished  skill  with  which  he  used 
the  now  almost  discarded  "  baffy  "  was  a  proverb. 
There  were  many  other  notable  players  of  like 
stamp  whose  game  bore  impress  of  the  same  fact 
— that  accuracy  and  science  were  vastly  more 
valuable  than  mere  length  of  driving.  They  com- 
bined, perhaps,  the  "  far  "  with  the  "  sure,1'  but  it 
was  the  "  sure  "  which  they  made  their  especial 
study. 

After  Mr.  George  Glennie  came  Mr.  William 
Mure,  record  breaking  with  an  85  for  the  medal 
round.  Then,  in  1883,  Mr.  Alexander  Stuart  set 
a  seal  upon  the  date  of  the  year  by  winning  the 
medal  in  the  self-same  figures — 83.  His  is  a  long, 
smooth,  even  swing,  which  the  learner  will  do 
well  to  set  himself  to  imitate,  and  it  has  received 
the  sanction  of  many  successes.  On  the  very  day 
on  which  Mr.  Stuart,  did  this  record,  Mr.  Leslie 
Balfour,  starting  earlier,  had  done  the  round  in 
85,  and  was  hailed  as  the  prospective  winner. 
But  though  Mi-.  Stuart  had  the  better  of  him  this 
once,  ;is  often  again,  Mr.  Balfour  has  had  a  lion's 
share  of  medal  wins  and  a  golfing  career  in  every 
way  remarkable.  In  the  Amateur  Championship 
Competition  of  L892  lie  was  all  even  and  one  to 
play  with   Mr.   Hall,  the    ultimate  winner  ;  and  in 


Golfers  ano  Stales  107 

the  same  year  we  see  him  captaining  the  Scottish 
cricket  team  at  Lord's.  His  is  a  very  fine  style 
of  driving* — more  strong  and  firm  upon  the  legs 
than  Mr.  Stuart's.  By  a  merciful  dispensation 
he  sometimes  misses  a  short  putt. 

Often  in  the  fore-front  at  St.  Andrews,  and 
elsewhere,  is  Mr.  Mure  Fergusson.  His  is  a 
strong,  powerful  game — muscular  and  determined. 
All  these  are  of  the  long-driving  class — yet  even 
these  are  not  what  we  should  term  the  slashers. 
For  these,  among  amateurs,  we  must  look  more 
especially  perhaps  to  the  families  of  Goff  and 
Blackwell,  one  of  the  last-named  of  whom,  Mr. 
Edward  Blackwell,  is,  surely,  the  very  longest 
driver  in  the  world.  It  is  told  of  him  that  he 
once  drove  past  the  long  hole  in  two,  both  com- 
ing in  and  going  out,  on  the  same  day.  It  is 
worth  going  to  St.  Andrews  to  see  him  drive — 
that  is  if  he  is  there ;  for  he  is  oftener  in  Cali- 
fornia. His  physique  combines  immense  strength 
and  suppleness,  and  his  swing  is  so  magnificent 
that  he  seems  to  get  into  the  ball  every  ounce  of 
this  tremendous  power.  Nor  is  he,  by  any  means, 
erratic  in  his  drives.  Some  years  back,  before  he 
went  to  America,  he  played  two  matches,  against 
Mr.  Laid  lay  and  Jack  Simpson  respectively.  Both 
the  latter  were  at  the  top  of  their  game,  at  tho 


108  Oolt 

time,  bat  Mr.  Black  well  defeated  them  both  with 
ease,  entirely  by  virtue  of  his  enormous  driving. 
Willie  Campbell  was  carrying  for  Mr.  Laidlay, 
and  expressed  himself  as  fairly  amazed.  Mr. 
Blackwell's  "  carry  "  was  said  habitually  to  land 
him  beyond  the  spot  at  which  Mr.  Laidlay's  ball 
stopped  running;  and  Mr.  Black  well  hits  rather 
a  running  ball;  nor  is  Mr.  Laidlay,  by  any  man- 
ner of  means,  a  short  driver.  Jack  Simpson  fared 
not  a  whit  better  at  his  hands.  Both  were  over- 
whelmed by  the  distance  by  which  they  were 
out-driven. 

It  would,  perhaps,  be  a  near  thing  in  a  driving 
match  between  Mr.  Blackwell  and  Douglas  Hol- 
land, Holland's  "carry"  is  enormous — quite  as 
long,  probably,  as  even  Mr.  Blackwell's ;  but  wo 
are  inclined  to  think  that  Holland's  ball  does  not 
run  so  far.  Still  he  is  a  huge  driver — of  very 
powerful  physique,  and  hitting  the  ball  with  a 
rather  slow,  but  very  strong,  body  blow  Our 
meaning  is  that  lie  swings  his  body  upon  the  ball 
rather  more  than  do  the  majority  of  line  drivers. 
Rolland  is  green-keeper  now  on  a  Southern  links, 
but  lie  learned  liis  golf  at  Elie  and  Earlsferry,  in 
company  with  the  great  family  of  professional 
golfers— the  Simpsons.  Jack  Simpson  was 
champion  one  year,  and  has  a  very  line  stylo  in- 


Golfers  ano  Stales  109 

deed  at  golf.  AYe  remember  that  Mr.  Everard 
somewhere  speaks  of  him  as  having  the  finest 
swing  of  any  man  who  ever  played  golf.  Mr. 
Everard  is,  of  course,  speaking  of  those  who  have 
come  within  his  personal  ken  ;  but  his  experience 
of  golf  is  a  long  and  very  wide  one.  Mr.  Everard's 
own  game  is  an  example  of  what  great  results 
persistent  resolution  can  produce  out  of  a  style 
which  is  certainly  the  reverse  of  promising.  Mr. 
Everard  did  not  take  seriously  to  golf  very  early — 
rather  he  interested  himself  in  tennis  and  cricket ; 
but  he  is  a  St.  Andrews  medalist,  and  has  won 
man}^  distinctions  in  many  places. 

One  of  the  easiest  and  most  elegant,  as  it  cer- 
tainly is  one  of  the  most  effective,  styles  that 
modern  golf  can  show  us  is  that  of  Harry  Yardon, 
a  native  of  Jersey,  who  learned  his  golf  on  the 
excellent  links  in  that  Island,  and  is  now  ensrafired 
on  the  Ganton  course,  near  Scarborough.  He 
won  the  Championship  of  1S96-T  in  a  sensational 
manner,  tieing  with  J.  II.  Taylor,  who  had  been 
champion  of  both  the  preceding  years,  and  beat- 
ing him,  after  a  fine  fight,  in  playing  off  for  de- 
cision. A  quiet  ease  is  the  characteristic  of 
Yardon's  driving  swing ;  he  never  seems  to  force 
the  stroke  at  all,  and  yet  one  is  fairly  astonished 
at  the  distance  that  the  ball  is  driven  bv  these 


110  <3olf 

seeming  easy  means.  And  when  one  takes 
Yardon's  club  in  hand,  the  wonder  is  only  in- 
creased. It  is  shorter  and  lighter  than  the  aver- 
age— we  have  said  that  Yardon's  style  of  stroke 
is  an  easy,  quiet  one — and  we  have  to  seek  the 
explanation  of  the  length  of  its  driving  in  the 
perfect  exactness  with  which  the  player  strike's 
every  ball.  The  motions  of  the  golfing  swing 
make  up  an  effect  of  great  beauty  as  he  displays 
them,  lie  has  a  fine  long  approach  up  to  the 
hole,  too,  with  a  heavy  driving  mashie,  using  it 
with  a  half  swing. 

The  great  antagonist  whom  he  defeated  so  gal- 
lantly, and  with  such  fine  nerve,  for  the  Cham- 
pionship, has  a  xevy  different  style.  Squareness 
and  strength,  one  would  say,  are  its  characteris- 
tics. Taylor  is,  himself,  a  squarely-built,  very 
strong  young  fellow.  lie  plays  every  shot  with 
his  right  foot  a  good  deal  in  advance  of  the  left 
— almost  as  if  every  shot  were  a  half  iron  shot. 
His  swing  is  not  a  very  long  one,  and  he  seems  to 
get  the  power  from  the  great  strength  of  his  fore- 
arm. His  driving,  at  the  time  of  his  double  win 
of  tin;  ( ihampionship,  when  he  was  in  better  form 
than  we  have  since  seen  him,  was  notable  for  its 
wonderful  straightness  and  a,  uniformly  low  tra- 
jectory  that    was    wry   useful  on   a   windy   day. 


Golfers  ano  Stales  111 

Straightness  rather  than  great  length  (though  he 
is  sufficiently  long)  has  always  been  the  feature 
of  Taylor's  driving.  But  if  his  game  was  note- 
worthy for  this  straigbtness  of  drive,  the  straight- 
ness,  the  accurate  judgment  and  the  dead  loft  of 
his  mashie  approaches  were  yet  more  remarkable. 
It  was  these  qualities  that  Avon  him  his  champion- 
ships even  more  than  the  accuracy  of  his  long 
game,  and  he  has  studied  and  worked  out  a  special 
method  of  mashie  play,  which  he  confidently  be- 
lieves to  be  the  secret  of  his  success. 

Yarclon's  clubs  when  he  won  the  Championship, 
and  drove  really  very  far  all  the  while,  were  un- 
usually short  and  light,  and  from  this  circum- 
stance a  fashion  set  in,  which  is  still  in  vogue,  of 
short  driving  clubs.  Savers,  who  used  to  play 
with  a  club  hugely  long  in  comparison  with  his 
height,  has  shortened  it  down  very  much,  drives 
just  as  far  as  ever  he  did,  and  a  deal  steadier. 
More  lately  again,  Taylor,  Yardon's  victim  in 
this  tie  for  the  Championship,  has  followed  his 
conqueror's  lead,  and  he,  too,  is  playing  with  short 
clubs  now.  Many  others,  both  professional  and 
amateur,  have  adopted  the  same  plan,  so  that  clubs 
generally  are  shorter  and  also  lighter,  than  was 
the  case  six  or  seven  years  ago. 

One  of  our  largest  drivers  and  very  best  players 


112  Golf 

is  James  Braid,  engaged  at  present  at  Romford, 
in  Essex.  Braid  learned  his  £*olf  on  the  nei<rh- 
bor  links  of  Leven  and  Elie,  winch  are  noted  for 
the  long  drivers — Holland,  and  Simpsons,  etc. — 
that  they  have  sent  out  into  the  golfing  world. 
Braid,  who  is  a  cousin  to  Rolland,  is  as  long  as 
any  of  them,  and  perhaps  the  best  player  of  them 
all.  At  the  Championship  Meeting  of  1897-8,  he 
was  second  only  to  Mr.  Hilton,  and  only  a  stroke 
behind  him  on  the  four  rounds  played.  Since 
that  championship  he  has  been  playing  in  wonder- 
fully good  form,  and  has  had  the  better  of  almost 
all  that  have  met  him.  His  is  a  long,  loose,  not 
strikingly  graceful  style,  but  its  power  is  terrific, 
and  he  is  as  sure  with  all  his  short  clubs  as  he  is 
far  with  his  long  ones.  There  is  no  club  in  his 
set  that  he  does  not  handle  like  a  master. 

But  the  pride  of  the  whole  professional  class  at 
the  moment  of  writing — that  is  to  say,  shortly 
before  the  Championship  Meeting  of  1898-9 — has 
been  la-ought  low  by  the  great  victory  of  Mr. 
Hilton  in  that  meeting  at  Hoylake  in  which  Braid 
came  second  to  him.  It  is  a  sufficiently  great 
lr.ii  for  an  Amateur  to  have  won  the  Open 
Championship  at  all  ;  but  Mr.  Hilton  lias  won  it 
twice.  No  other  amateur  except  Mr.  Ball  has 
ever  won  it,  and  Mr.  Ball   has  only    won  it  once. 


Colters  ano  Stales  113 

Curiously  enough  Mr.  Hilton  has  never  won  the 
Amateur  Championship,  but  his  greatest  strength 
has  generally  been  shown  in  score  play  rather 
than  in  matches  by  holes.  Mr.  Hilton,  it  scarcely 
need  be  said  is  a  past  master  in  all  departments 
of  the  game.  He  has  always  been  a  remarkably 
good  short  game  player,  and  lately  he  has  added 
many  yards  to  the  length  of  his  driving,  which 
was  all  that  was  wanted  to  put  him  at  all  points 
equal  with  the  best.  He  has  a  way  of  playing 
his  approaches  straight  up  to  the  hole,  without 
any  curve  in  the  air,  which  scarcely  any  other 
player  except  Taylor  and  very  few  besides  have 
achieved.  In  addition  to  this  he  has  one  or  two 
shots  rather  peculiar  to  himself,  notably  a  half 
shot  with  the  brassie,  which  he  often  uses  with 
deadly  effect.  Of  his  driving  style  the  chief 
characteristic  is  its  fine  finish,  the  way  in  which 
he  lets  his  body  turn  right  round  to  help  in  the 
follow  on,  while  the  club  comes  right  back  over 
the  left  shoulder.  But  temperament  seems  to 
have  as  much  to  do,  as  the  muscular  adjustments, 
with  Mr.  Hilton's  success.  He  is  always  good- 
tempered  and  cheery  in  good  and  evil  fortune 
alike,  never  losing  heart  and  never  being  fright- 
ened by  the  excellence  of  a  good  score. 

There  is  but  one  golfer  who  has  really  taken 


1U  <3olf 

any  change  at  all  out  of  Braid  since  he  ran  up  so 
well  for  the  championship,  and  this  is  that  stub- 
born good  match  player  Andrew  Kirkaldy,  and 
this  was  only  in  an  eighteen-hole  match  that  they 
pLrved  at  Mitcham.  Andrew  is  the  eldest  of  the 
three  brothers,  of  whom  poor  young  Hugh,  the 
ex-champion,  is  no  more.  The  latter's  style  was 
most  fascinating  to  watch,  long,  free  and  fearless. 
Andrew  has  not  the  same  delightful  style — his  is 
a  stronger,  more  squarely-built  figure,  and  his 
swing,  accordingly,  is  shorter.  But  he  gets  a  very 
long  ball  with  this  short  swing,  and  in  the  shorter 
approaches  is  more  than  a  match  for  his  brother 
at  his  best.  Hugh's  great  faculty  lay  in  playing 
his  full  shots,  full  drives,  right  up  beside  the  hole. 
No  man,  probably,  lias  so  often  holed  in  two 
from  long  distances,  but  from  80  yards,  down- 
wards, Andrew  has  probably  much  more  often 
holed  in  two.  It  is  in  match  play  that  Andrew 
Kirkaldy  has  shown  his  chief  strength.  Unlike 
Mr.  Hilton,  of  whom  we  have  just  been  speaking, 
Kirkaldy  seems  at  his  best  in  the  play  by  holes, 
whereas  "Mr.  Hilton's  greatest  triumphs  have 
been  in  scoring  play.  One  of  those  with  whom 
Kirkaldy  played,  and  won  a  great  match,  was 
Willie  Park,  a  player  of  delightfully  easy  style, 
with  which,  nevertheless,  he   drives  a  long  ball. 


Golfers  ano  Stales  115 

Park  has  twice  been  champion ;  but  Kirkaldy 
beat  him  in  a  long  match.  At  the  moment  of 
writing  Park  is  purported  to  have  issued  a  bold 
challenge  offering  to  play  any  man  in  the  world 
for  £100,  his  only  condition  being  that  the  match 
shall  be  played  on  a  seaside  green.  It  will  be  in- 
teresting if  his  old  enemy,  Kirkaldy,  takes  him 
up.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact  Kirkaldy,  for  the 
moment,  has  another  job  on  his  hands,  arising  out 
of  a  brave  challenge  sent  forth  by  Archie  Simp- 
son, of  Aberdeen,  and  Bernard  Savers,  of  Xorth 
Berwick,  to  play  any  other  two  a  foursome  match 
for  £50  a  side.  The  challenge  was  promptly  ac- 
cepted by  Andrew  Kirkaldy  and  Alexander  Herd, 
and  this  match  has  still  to  be  played.  Neverthe- 
less, Kirkaldy  may,  perhaps,  steal  a  day  or  two 
for  a  single  match  with  Park. 

All  the  players  engaged  in  this  foursome  are 
men  of  note.  Archie  Simpson  is  the  brother  of 
that  Jack  Simpson  whom  we  have  mentioned  be- 
fore as  a  winner  of  the  championship  and  a  long 
driver  with  a  fine  slashing  style.  It  is  to  be 
lamented  that  he  is  no  more.  Archie,  however, 
is  a  worthy  upholder  of  the  family  honor,  a  fine 
driver,  too,  with  a  long,  powerful  style ;  in  every 
point  a  fine  golfer. 

A  few  years  ago  Herd  was  playing  so  well  that 


116  <3olf 

it  seemed  impossible  for  any  one  to  beat  him  in  a 
scoring  competition.  At  the  time  of  Taylor's 
second  championship  Herd  was  winning  every- 
thing, and  it  was  only  by  an  extraordinarily  fine 
last  round  that,  even  for  the  championship, 
Taylor  induced  him  to  take  second  place.  Herd's 
style  has  not  the  slashing  freedom  of  some  of 
those  others  that  we  have  noticed,  but  by  way  of 
compensation — and  perhaps,  just  a  little  more 
than  merely  adequate  compensation — it  seems  to 
have  a  remarkable  compactness,  as  if  all  its  mo- 
tions were  under  unusual^  good  control ;  and 
this  we  may,  perhaps,  take  to  be  the  reason  that 
Herd  is  so  very  consistently  good  when  he  is  in 
form.  He  is  a  very  fine  short  game  player,  and 
his  driving  is  only  out-distanced  by  the  very  long 
ones. 

Then  there  is  Sayers.  For  awhile,  for  most  of 
his  golfing  Life,  he  used  to  play  with  a  club  that 
seemed  disproportionately  long  for  him,  for  he  is 
a  man  of  short  stature  ami  his  clubs  used  to  be 
unusually  long.  But  lately,  following  the  fashion 
that  A^ardon  set,  he  has,  as  we  have  said,  shortened 
all  his  driving  clubs,  and  his  game  is,  no  doubt, 
the  belter  for  it.  He  plays  with  less  effort, and 
there  seems  t«>  be  ;i  reserve  of  power  in  him  that 
he  had  not  when  he  played  with  so  long  a  club 


<3olfers  anfc  Stales  11? 

that  "the  tail  seemed  to  wag  the  dog."  His 
golfing  career  has  been  full  of  triumph,  but  per- 
haps he  has  seldom  had  a  greater  than  when  he 
met,  and  beat,  the  redoubtable  Andrew  Kirkaldy 
a  few  years  ago  in  a  home  and  home  match. 

Another  of  the  North  Country  professionals 
with  a  very  fine  style,  and  a  perfect  knowledge 
of  all  the  departments  of  the  game,  is  Willie 
Fernie.  Just  lately  he  has  made  a  new  record 
for  the  Prestwick  links,  on  which  all  the  best 
talent  has  been  playing  for  generations.  It  is  he 
that  came  South  and  gave  a  series  of  golfing 
lectures,  which  were  well  attended  and  helped 
some  crippled  swings  not  a  little. 

Of  the  amateurs  none  holds  quite  equal  place 
with  Mr.  Ball  and  Mr.  Hilton.  The  former  has 
four  times  been  amateur  champion  and  was  the 
first  to  break  the  professional  spell  and  win  the 
open  championship  from  the  professionals ;  the 
second  has  never  won  the  amateur  championship, 
but  he  has  won  the  open  twrice.  But  after  these, 
at  the  moment  of  writing,  we  must  place  Mr.  F.  G. 
Tait,  who  has  been  amateur  champion  once,  and 
has  twice  played  up  in  a  most  worthy  manner 
for  the  open  championship.  If  a  Scottish  amateur 
is  to  win  the  open  championship  in  the  immediate 
future  we  think  that  Mr.  Tait  will  be  the  man  to 


118  <3olf 

win  it.  His  game  has  in  it  something  of  the 
characteristic  of  Herd's — he  always  seems  to  he 
going  well  within  himself  and  to  have  a  reserve 
of  force  which  he  could  bring  out  if  occasion  re- 
quired it.  With  a  comparatively  quiet  swing  he 
drives  a  very  long  ball,  and  he  is  good  with  all 
his  cluhs — a  better  putter  than  the  long  driver  is 
wont  to  be. 

The  last  amateur  championship  meeting,  held 
at  Muirfield,  saw  the  success  of  Mr.  Travers  Allan, 
a  young  player  of  whom  little  was  known,  except 
locally.  lie  surprised  all  who  saw  him  play  by 
his  quiet  determination,  and  eventually  he  beat 
Mr.  Robb  in  the  final  tic  with  considerable  ease. 
He  was  very  young  when  he  won  that  honor,  and 
yet,  before  his  year  of  holding  it  was  over,  he 
was  no  more.  At  the  moment  of  writing  there, 
is  no  amateur  champion,  and  all  the  golfing  world 
has  felt  the  sadness  of  so  melancholy  and  prema- 
ture a  loss. 

And  now  we  must,  bring  this  chapter  to  a  close, 
though  fully  conscious  that  there  are  many,  many 
players  to  whom  we  owe  apologies  for  the  fact 
that  their  names  are  not,  among  the  worthies  we 
have  thus  casually  mentioned.  But  even  to  name 
all  the  first-class  players,  whose  performances 
have  been  worthy  of  note,  and   whose  styles  arc 


Golfers  ano  Stales  119 

useful  patterns  for  the  golfing*  tyros,  would  fill  a 
chapter  of  itself,  and  to  the  general  public  might 
prove,  in  the  words  of  the  Scotsman,  who  read 
from  first  word  to  last  of  the  Greek  Lexicon, 
"Yerra  interesting  readin'  but  a  trifle  discon- 
nect^." 


120  $Olt 


CHAPTER   VI 


MATCH    PLAY 


The  history  of  the  great  majority  of  hard- 
fought  matches  is  the  same  ;  there  is  a  hole  or 
two  of  give-and-take  at  the  start  before  either 
side  has  really  settled  down  to  work;  then  there 
follows  a  ding-dong  strenuous  battle,  until  about 
three  or  four  holes  from  home,  one  or  other  side 
holes  along  putt,  lays  an  iron  shot  dead,  or  wins 
a  crucial  hole  by  sonic  wonderful  feat.  Then  the 
other  side  "  cracks  " — goes  off  its  game — and  the 
remainder  of  the  round  is  but  a  procession  to 
its  grave.  It  is  thus  that  the  "crack"  is  some- 
times  brought  about.  Very  much  more  often, 
however,  it  is  the  result  of  a  piece  of  bad  play  on 
the  part  of  the  "cracking"  side,  rather  than  of 
superhumanly  good  piny  on  the  part  of  the  win- 
nine  side— for  the  former  is  far  more  common. 
Bui  the  three  points  we  wish  to  call  to  notice  in 
the  typical  history  of  golf-matches  are  (1)  the  few 


dftatcb  fl>la£  121 

holes  of  loose  play  at  the  start ;  (2)  the  ding-dong 
battle ;  and  (3)  the  crisis. 

Taking  the  first  point  in  its  order,  we  shall  find 
by  observation  of  others  and  of  our  own  play, 
that  it  commonly  takes  two  or  three  holes  for  the 
player  to  become  alive  to  the  difficulty  of  the  task 
he  has  entered  on;  he  is  apt  to  drive  with  a  joy- 
ous carelessness — to  putt  with  no  deep  sense  of 
his  responsibilities,  feeling  that  there  is  "  lots  of 
time  ; "  that  if  he  loses  a  hole  or  two  now  he  can 
get  it  back  long  before  the  finish.  This  is  a  bad 
frame  of  mind  to  start  in ;  and  though  it  is  true 
that  the  adversary  may  be  playing  with  a  similar 
carelessness,  it  is  evident  that  the  one  who  first 
settles  down  to  serious  business  will  gain  that 
much  of  an  advantage.  It  is  always  well,  there- 
fore, at  the  start,  to  recall  to  yourself  past  ex- 
periences of  matches  which  have  depended  on 
the  result  of  a  single  putt,  and  to  remember 
how  immensely  important  that  crucial  putt  had 
seemed ;  whereas  the  result  of  a  similar  putt  at 
the  first  or  second  hole  had  appeared  of  no  com- 
parative consequence.  Reflect  that  in  point  of 
fact  the  influence  of  either  on  the  match  was  pre- 
cisely identical — that  if  you  had  holed  the  putt 
(which  you  missed  and  thought  nothing  of)  at  the 
first  hole,  your  nerves   would  never  have  been 


122  <30lf 

subjected  to  all  that  severe  test  at  the  crucial 
point.  Remember  that,  in  the  end,  it  is  the  easiest 
plan  to  play  your  very  hardest  from  the  very 
first.  In  point  of  fact,  the  result  of  the  first  two 
or  three  holes  is,  in  many  instances,  all-important. 
There  are  so  many  men  who  are  depressed  by  a 
balance  of  two  holes  up  against  them.  Golfers 
deceive  themselves  very  much  about  this.  It  is 
common  to  hear  them  say,  "  Oh,  I  hate  being  up. 
I  play  far  better  if  I  am  a  hole  or  two  behind." 

They  believe  this  themselves,  but  no  one  else, 
who  has  had  much  golfing  experience,  will  readily 
believe  it.  "  It  is  easy  to  play  the  winning  game," 
is  a  proverb  which  is  far  more  generally  true. 
Play  your  hardest  from  the  very  first,  then,  with 
the  conviction  that  the  encouragement  of  a  hole 
or  two  to  your  credit  will  improve  your  game,  as 
it  gives  you  confidence,  and  will  correspondingly 
take  a  little  off  the  confidence  and  execution  of 
your  opponent.  The  previous  stroke,  and  the 
previous  results,  have  always  their  moral  effects. 
It  is  wiser  to  recognize  than  to  ignore  them.  For 
this  reason,  at  the  drive  from  the  first  tee,  if 
your  adversary  offers  you  the  "  honor,"  accept  it ; 
for  most  drives  are  tolerably  good  ones,  and  you 
are  more  lively,  by  making  a  good,  clean  shot,  to 
put  a  little  of  the  fear  of  death  on  your  opponent 


/Ifcatcb  flMaE  123 

than  he  is  to  encourage  you  by  making  a  *  top." 
On  the  other  hand,  it  is,  perhaps,  scarcely  neces- 
sary to  say  that  it  is  not  in  the  best  of  form  to 
take  the  honor,  unless  it  be  offered — at  all  events 
without  some  such  phrase  of  courtesy  as  "  Shall  I 
begin  %  "  or  the  like. 

Then,  having  got  the  "  honor,"  do  your  best  to 
keep  it.  By  the  latest  St.  Andrews  roles  it  is  in- 
culcated, amongst  the  maxims  of  etiquette,  that 
the  player  who  has  the  "  honor"  shall  be  allowed 
to  drive  off  from  the  tee  before  the  adversary 
shall  "  tee  "  his  ball.  He  thus  is  not  bothered  by 
the  adversary  looking  about  for  a  tee  while  he  is 
striking.  There  is  no  penalty  for  the  breach  of 
this  maxim  ;  but  on  this  very  account  it  ought  to 
be  regarded,  in  common  with  the  other  maxims 
of  etiquette,  as  almost  more  rigidly  to  be  ob- 
served than  those  rules  which  have  the  sanction 
of  a  penalty.  The  adversary  is  expected  to  stand 
still  and  silent  while  the  player  is  making  his 
stroke ;  he  is  expected  to  stand  where  the  player 
shall  wish  him  to  stand,  so  as  not  to  distract  the 
eye  which  should  be  giving  all  its  attention  to 
the  ball.  Even  though  the  requirements  of  the 
player  may  often  be  somewhat  whimsical,  it  is 
the  duty  of  the  opponent  to  humor  and  respect 
them.     Breach  of  a  rule  is  a  matter,  more  or  less, 


IU  (Bolt 

at  the  breakers  risk  ;  but  in  infringements  of 
the  maxims  of  etiquette  he  is  sinning  in  inglori- 
ous security,  and  the  man  of  fine  feeling  will  see 
that  he  should  be  the  more  scrupulous  on  the 
point  of  honor  than  on  the  point  of  law. 


ftandfcappfng  125 


CHAPTER  YII 

HANDICAPPING 

A  handicap  is  pretty  sure  to  be  a  good  one  (1) 
if  everybody  concerned  is  pleased  ;  or  (2)  if  every- 
body concerned  is  dissatisfied.  This,  however, 
seldom  happens,  so  that  the  inference  is  that  few 
handicaps  are  good  ones.  As  a  rule,  the  dissatisfied 
are  in  a  large  majority — a  majority  swollen  by 
those  who  are  not  genuinely  displeased,  but  who 
think  that  any  show  of  satisfaction  might  be  taken 
to  imply  that  they  consider  themselves  over- 
favorably  handicapped,  and  so  damage  their 
future  chances.  It  will,  therefore,  appear  that 
the  handicapper's  life  is  unlikely  to  be  a  happy 
one,  and  that  his  remuneration  more  often  takes 
the  shape  of  kicks,  metaphorically  speaking,  than 
of  half-pence. 

The  fact  is  that  it  is  not  the  handicapper's 
fault.  Of  all  games  that  the  idleness  of  man  has 
invented,  none  defies  calculation  so  persistentlv  as 
golf. 


126  <3olf 

There  are  two  ways  in  which  it  seems  reason- 
able to  approach  the  task  of  handicapping  a  num- 
ber of  men  for  a  score  competition.  The  one  is 
to  assume  a  certain  score  to  be  the  score  which  a 
scratch-player  is  likely  to  return  if  he  plays  his 
best  game,  and  taking  this  as  the  unit,  to  handi- 
cap the  others  so  that  each,  if  he  also  plays  his 
best  game,  will  be  likely  to  return  a  net  score  of 
tin1  same  figure.  "  Another  way  "  is  to  handicap 
so  that  each  man,  when  he  starts,  will  have  an 
equal  chance  of  winning.  Both  these  plans  seem 
reasonable,  yet  neither  of  them  is  practical,  and 
mutually  they  are  inconsistent.  The  reason  of 
this — and  the  reason  that  golf  handicaps  must  al- 
ways, so  far  as  human  foresight  can  see,  remain 
imperfect — is  that  a  good  golfer  plays  his  best 
game  so  very  much  more  frequently  than  a  bad 
player  does.  The  result  of  which  is  that  if  you 
handicap  on  the  former  method  your  scratch- 
player  will  win  far  often er  than  your  long-handi- 
capped men  ;  whereas,  if  you  handicap  on  the 
Latter  method  your  limit  players  will  sometimes 
win  with  scores  which  are, humanly  speaking,  im- 
possible for  the  scratch-player  to  touch,  and  you 
lind  yourself  in  the  position  of  a  handicapper  for 
a  hundred  yards'  race,  seeing  one  of  the  long- 
start  men  do  the  hundred   jn   nine  seconds.     Ao 


cording  to  our  present  system  there  is  usually 
no  third  method  possible;  therefore,  the  handi- 
capper  is  reduced  to  do  his  best  out  of  a  com- 
promise between  these  two — and,  like  most  com- 
promises, it  is  a  futile  thing. 

That  we  are  stating  no  prejudiced  view,  a  refer- 
ence to  those  selling  lotteries  which  we  have  be- 
fore mentioned  with  reprobation,  will  suffice  to 
show.  Therein,  though  it  is  one  of  the  principles 
which  a  handicap  is  supposed  to  recognize  that 
all  should  start  with  ecpial  chances,  we  find  that 
one  man's  chance  sells  for  four  or  five  pounds, 
while  another's  is  not  deemed  worth  so  many 
shillings.  Still,  it  is  not  the  handicapper  who  is 
to  blame  ;  for  he  is  asked  to  perform  impossibili- 
ties. He  can  but  make  the  best  he  may  out  of  a 
bad  job,  and  ask  St.  Andrew's  favor  not  to  stultify 
his  efforts  too  completely.  Moreover,  there  is  a 
general  feeling  that  the  handicapper  is  every- 
body's enemy.  Far  from  seeking  to  help  him, 
there  are  many  men  who  seem  to  take  a  delight 
in  trying  to  mystify  him — to  think  that  they  have 
done  a  clever  thing  if  they  conceal  their  real 
game  from  him.  Many  shabby  tricks  are  re- 
sorted to  for  this  end  ;  and  it  is  these  evil  prac- 
tices which  make  us  so  averse  to  the  "  selling  lot- 
teries "  which  offer  a  substantial  temptation  to 


128  <3olt 

those  whose  principles  are  at  all  "loose  in  the 
glue." 

The  maxim  for  the  handicapper,  then,  is  to  do 
his  best  to  avoid  the  mistakes  which  will  follow 
the  uncompromising  adoption  of  either  of  the 
methods  which  seem  so  full  of  sweet  reasonable- 
ness, lie  must  exercise  his  judgment.  He  must 
not  be  too  closel\r  bound  up  in  red  tape,  nor  fol- 
low too  blindly  the  records  of  previous  perform- 
ances. He  must  take  these  records  at  their 
proper  value — not  so  much  "  penalizing-  for  a  win  " 
as  for  the  degree  of  skill  of  which  that  win  was 
evidence.  His  business  is  to  start  all  players  on 
an  equality,  with  the  modification  which  is  requi- 
site, in  order  that  the  scratch-players  should  not 
be  handicapped  out  of  all  possible  chance- — and  a 
vow  difficult  business  it  is. 

Much,  too,  might  1)0  written  on  tin4  mutual  re- 
lations of  players  and  spectators.  The  player 
has  a  right  to  expect  the  same  consideration 
from  the  spectator  as  from  the  opponent  in  such 
matters  as  silence  and  immobility.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  immobility  and  silence  which  are  ex- 
acted as  a  due  from  the  opponent  are  rather  eon- 
ceded  by  courtesy  on  the  part  of  the  spectator ; 
so    that    the    player,    if    occasion     for    complaint 

should  arise,  ought  to  conch  his  complaint  in  the 


1banfcicappfn0  .  129 

terms  of  one  who  is  asking  a  courtesy.  But,  in 
point  of  fact,  there  should  be  no  need  for  com- 
plaint ;  and,  indeed,  the  complaining  is  as  distress- 
ing and  disturbing  to  finely-strung  nerves  as  is 
the  offense  which  has  occasioned  it. 

The  consideration  of  side  issues  suggested  by 
our  first  point — the  loose  way  in  which  the  first 
few  holes  of  a  round  are  commonly  played — has 
led  us  into  digression.  We  will  return  to  this 
point  in  order  to  say  to  those  who  aie  about  to 
commence  a  match  in  this  the  normal  method, 
"  Don't  " — Apply  yourself  with  intensity  to  the 
business  of  the  game  from  the  very  start.  It  is 
the  easiest  plan  in  the  end,  for  it  may  spare  you 
severer  struggles  later  on.  Golf  your  hardest 
from  start  to  finish. 

The  next  point  in  the  story  of  the  typical  golf 
match  is  the  ding-dong  battle  in  the  middle  of 
the  round.  A  very  great  secret  of  success  in 
golf  is  to  remember  that  your  adversary  does  not 
beat  you  nearly  so  much  as  you  beat  yourself — 
by  which  we  mean  that  very  many  more  matches 
are  decided  by  the  mistakes  of  the  loser  than  by 
any  abnormal  feat  on  the  part  of  the  victor. 
The  great  thing  to  do  in  match  play,  as  in  medal 
play,  is  to  go  on  playing  as  well  as  you  can.  Do 
not  think  too  much  about  the  game  of  your  op- 
9 


130  (Bolt 

ponent.  Play  your  own  game  as  well  as  you  can 
and  trust  to  your  opponent's  mistakes  for  your 
victory.  The  man  who  makes  the  fewest  mis- 
takes is  the  man  who  wins  most  golf  matches. 
It  is  not  by  heroic  means  that  their  issue  is  decided 
— it  is  by  "  tops,"  and  "  sclaffs,"  and  misses,  which 
are  usually  the  result  of  striving  after  heroic  feats 
— the  result  of  "pressing."  It  is  a  good  plan  to 
try  to  get  out  of  your  head  the  fact  of  your 
opponent's  existence.  Say  to  yourself,  not  that 
}rou  have  come  out  to  beat  such  and  such  a  man, 
but  that  you  have  come  out  to  try  to  play  the 
game  as  well  as  you  can,  to  make  every  stroke  as 
perfectly  as  possible,  to  avoid  making  a  mistake. 
That  is  the  way  to  win  matches — the  way  which 
the  most  successful  match  players  have  pursued. 
Of  course,  it  is  not  to  be  said  that  this  theory  is 
not  liable  to  abuse,  as  are  all  theories  of  human 
conception.  If  the  adversary  lias  played  two  or 
three  more  it  would  be  folly  to  attempt  a  long 
carry  over  a  bad  bunkeriip  to  the  hole  ;  although, 
if  the  player  was  two  strokes  behind,  it  might  be 
the  better  wisdom  to  attempt  the  perilous  feat. 
All  theories  must  be  accepted  in  a  rational  spirit, 
but  the  tendency  is  certainly  not  to  realize  the 
truth  that  is  contained  in  the  theory  we  have 
stated,  hut  to  try,  by  heroic  pressing,  to  do  some 


IbanDicapptng  231 

thing  which  shall  make  the  opponent  lie  down 
and  cry  for  mercy.  That  is  not  the  best  method 
of  golf.  To  wear  him  out  by  the  non  vi  sed  scejje 
cadendo  plan  is  the  thing.  Always  lay  your  long 
putts  dead.  Make  him  think  that  you  will  un- 
failingly hole  in  two  from  any  part  of  the  putting- 
green,  and  he  will  find  it  very  hard  to  play  up 
against  this  paralyzing  conviction.  The  moral 
effect  of  character  is  much  underrated  at  golf. 
We  find  it  in  our  own  experience,  though  we 
may  never  have  definitely  stated  it  ourselves ; 
but  probably  we  are  all  aware  of  the  depressing 
effect  of  playing  against  one  who  has  the  charac- 
ter of  "  never  knowing  when  he  is  beaten,5'  who, 
we  are  sure,  will  play  up  to  the  very  end.  On 
the  other  hand,  how  encouraging  it  is  to  feel  that 
our  opponent  is  a  man  whom  a  small  contretemps 
can  put  off,  who  is  apt  to  "  crack  "  at  the  crucial 
point,  who  cannot  bear  the  weight  of  two  holes 
down.  Then,  again,  we  play  with  much  more 
confidence  against  an  opponent  whom  we  have 
often  beaten,  but  are  depressed  by  the  knowledge 
that  we  are  playing  against  one  who  has  been  in 
the  habit  of  getting  the  best  of  us.  But  all  this 
moral  effect  is  greatly  annulled  if  we  can  keep 
our  attention  fixed   upon  our  own  play  without 


132  <3olf 

being  too  greatly  concerned  about  out-playing 
our  opponent. 

Some  are  very  much  oppressed  when  they  find 
themselves  outdrjyjm^nd  this  is  really  more  true 
of  long  drivers  than  of  short  drivers;  for  the 
latter  are  more  accustomed  to  it.  It  is  distaste- 
ful to  find  another  constantly  outdriving  us,  but 
it  makes  but  little  difference,  if  only  we  can  bring 
ourselves  to  believe  it.  The  difference  between 
the  respective  lengths  of  men's  drives  is  very 
slight,  after  all.  Very  seldom  does  one  gain  of 
another  a  full  stroke  in  any  one  hole  by  length 
of  driving ;  but  how  often  is  a  stroke  lost  and 
gained  on  the  putting-green  ?  The  true  means 
of  hardening  our  hearts  against  the  depressing 
influence  of  being  outdriven  is  to  put  ourselves 
into  the  way  of  longer  drivers  than  ourselves, 
and  to  play  many  matches  with  them.  So,  by 
familiarity,  we  shall  grow  to  have  a  certain  con- 
tempt for  what  is,  in  reality,  a  slight  advantage 
that  these  Jehus  gain  ;  and  the  sensation  will  not 
o  paralyzing  as  if  it  came  to  us  but  rarely. 
And  this,  again,  is  but  part  of  a  bigger  principle 
—  that  if  we  want  to  improve  we  must  play  with 
better  players  than  ourselves.  It  is  better  that 
our  imitation  of  tin.' methods  of  superior  players 
should  he  as  little   conscious  as  possible ;  in  that 


t>an&fcappfn(j  133 

way  it  is  more  perfect,  and  the  result  becomes 
more  truly  a  part  of  our  personal  property  in 
golf.  Certainly  it  is  not  well  to  try  by  strenuous 
effort  of  muscle  to  drive  up  to  a  naturally  longer 
driver.  If  by  the  improvement  in  our  style, 
greater  length  comes  to  us,  as  it  were,  naturally, 
by  all  means  let  us  accept  the  good  gift  with 
gratitude  ;  but  it  is  no  use  trying  to  persuade  the 
ball  by  the  methods  of  the  sledge-hammer. 

We  have  spoken  of  the  humors  of  some  golfers, 
as  to  the  place  in  which  they  wish  you  to  stand, 
etc.,  while  they  are  playing,  and  have  said  that 
these  are  sometimes  strained  to  whimsical  lengths. 
They  then  become  a  nuisance,  though  it  is  your 
duty  to  respect  them  ;  and  you  will  bear  with 
them  with  the  greater  patience  if  you  can  re- 
member that  they  are  by  far  a  bigger  nuisance  to 
the  player  who  is  vexed  with  these  fancies  than 
they  can  be  to  any  of  those  who  have  to  put  up 
with  them.  The  same  consideration  may  lead 
you  to  reflect  on  the  undesirability  of  cultivating 
like  fancies  in  }Tourself.  Bear  your  misfortunes 
as  long  as  you  can,  even  if  some  one  in  your 
vicinity  talks  or  moves  while  you  are  playing. 
The  more  you  can  bring  yourself  to  treat  these 
noxious  circumstances  as  if  you  were  unconscious 
of  them,  so  much  the  more  will  you  acquire  a  real 


134  (Bolt 

anconsciousness  of  them.  This  will  add  to  your 
own  happiness  as  a  golfer  as  well  as  to  the  hap- 
piness of  all  who  play  with  you,  in  spite  of  the 
fact  that  it  will  also  win  for  you  many  more 
mutches  than  if  you  allowed  a  hyper-sensitiveness 
about  your  surroundings  to  grow  until  it  fully 
possessed  you. 

Neither  is  it  conducive  to  the  comfort  of  your- 
self or  others  to  get  into  the  way  of  continual 
complaint  about  your  luck,^ There  never  was  a 
golfer  yet  who  was  not  sometimes  tempted  to 
think  himself  the  exclusive  subject  of  Providence's 
chastisement.  That  this  should  be  so  universal  an 
idea  shows  that,  in  reality,  Fortune  makes  no  such 
individual  preferences.  All  men's  luck  in  the 
long  run  is  probably  very  much  the  same.  The 
winning  of  golf  matches  depends  much  upon 
temperament — on  a  power  of  keeping  the  temper 
— and  that  is  a  power  which  grows  with  use,  and 
will  be  found  of  very  great  efficacy  throughout 
the  ding-dong  battle,  and  above  all  in  the  climax, 
the  crucial  point  in  the?  match.  At  this  point  it 
becomes  more  imperative  than  ever  to  bear  in 
mind  the  maxim  that  you  are  required  to  do 
nothing  heroic,  that  you  have  only  to  go  on  play- 
ing steadily  without  mistakes,  and  that  you  may 
confidently   count  on  a  mistake,  sooner  or  later, 


•foan&icapping  135 

to  decide  the  issue  of  the  match.  Strive,  then, 
to  defer  your  own  mistake  ;  let  your  ponent's 
mistake  come  first,  and  the  whole  business  is  done  ; 
you  have  conquered  at  the  crucial  point,  the  match 
is  yours. 

But,  of  course,  the  history  of  every  golf  match 
is  not  precisely  in  this  wise — though  this  is  the 
most  typical  story.  Sometimes  it  happens  that 
you  will  get  a  hole  or  two  to  the  good  early  in 
the  contest,  and  then  it  especially  behooves  you 
to  try  to  keep  steady.  There  arises,  under  these 
pleasant  circumstances,  a  temptation  to  go  care- 
lessly, with  the  golden  ease  of  a  man  who  has  a 
balance  at  the  bank.  But  this  you  must  strenu- 
ously fight  against.  Remember  the  well-worn 
saws  that  the  match  is  never  lost  till  it  is  won, 
and  the  rest  of  them.  Remember  this  wise  say- 
ing no  less  when  you  are  two  or  three  down,  and 
never  relinquish  hope.  Some  golfers  have  won  a 
great  reputation  for  their  staying  powers,  for  the 
faculty  of  stiching  to  a  task  which  another  would 
give  up  as  hopeless.  It  is  wonderful  what 
matches  these  strong  souls  now  and  again  pull 
out  of  the  fire. 

Another  danger  which  is  apt  to  beset  the  path 
of  the  man  who  is  a  hole  or  two  up  is  a  nervous- 
ness arising  from  the  idea  that  the  match  is  al- 


136  <3olf 

ready  within  his  grasp.     His  over-quick  imagina- 
tion conjures  for  him  a  vision  of  victory   which 
makes  his  pulses  beat  unduly  fast  and   interferes 
with  the  "douce"  serenity  of  his  spirit  and  of 
his  game.     He  gets  frightened  by  his  own  success. 
Perhaps  in  match-play  this  feeling  is  less  common 
than  the  pleasing  confidence  which  success  more 
often  engenders;  but  nearly  eveiy  one  is  aware 
of  a  similar  sensation  in  score  play.     Over  and 
over  again  has  a  man  gone  out  in  a  fine  score, 
and  the  sheer  prospect  of  victory  has  unmanned 
him  and  made  him  spoil  himself  on  the  way  home. 
The  more  we  can  engage  our  attention  with  the 
stroke  which  is  before  us  at  the  moment  the  less 
we  shall  be  affected  by  the  prospect  or  the  retro- 
spect.    It  is  thus  that  the  man  of  slow  imagination 
has  the  advantage.      His  vision  is  not  clouded  by 
ghosts   of   his    bunkered    past   or  second-sighted 
fancies  of  a  future   unlikely  to  be  realized.     "  It's 
dogged  as  docs  it,"  is  the  phrase  quoted  out  of 
the   mouth    of    an   illiterate   man    by   one  of  our 
greal   thinkers.     He  used  it  of  the  quality  which 
wins  English  b;iftl<s,  and  makes  the  ^nglo-Saxon 
what  he  is;  but  it  applies  excellently  to  the  spirit 
in  which  golf  matches  are  won — a  dogged  per- 
sistence in  doing  the  duty  which  lies  nearest  to 
us,  the  stroke  immediately  in  hand.    In  score  play 


IbanMcappfng  13? 

this  is  especially  true.  "  The  medal  player," 
says  Sir  Walter  Simpson,  "  must  be  no  Lot's 
wife." 

So  far  as  actual  play  goes,  we  are  inclined  to 
think  that  the  portion  of  the  game  which  most 
generally  affects  the  result  of  matches  is  the  ap- 
proach stroke.  It  is  exceedingly  important  not 
to  miss  drives,  and  to  lay  putts  dead  ;  but  the 
importance  of  these  is  obvious,  whereas  a  prime 
fact  about  the  approach  stroke  often  escapes 
notice — namely,  that  it  is  almost  always  short. 
No  matter  whether  it  be  played  with  wood  or 
iron,  with  full  or  half-swing,  the  greatly  prepon- 
derating tendency  of  the  golfer  is  not  to  be  up 
with  it.  We  firmly  believe  that  any  player  who 
could  harden  his  heart  always  to  be  up  to  the 
hole  would  put  on  a  good  third  to  his  game  ; 
and,  in  the  case  of  inferior  players,  might  put  on 
from  a  half  to  a  stroke  a  hole.  There  is  no 
maxim  like  it — "  the  hole  will  not  come  to 
you." 

You  see  all  your  calculations,  as  you  address 
yourself  to  play  the  approach  shot,  are  based  on 
the  supposition  that  you  are  going  to  hit  the  ball 
clean.  Now,  nothing  can  very  well  occur  to 
make  you  hit  it  cleaner  than  clean,  and  so  send 
it  farther  than  yon  have  calculated,  whereas  all 


138  Golf 

sorts  of  misadventures  by  which  you  may  hit  it 
not  cleanly  are  only  too  familiar.  The  result  is 
that  nine  approach  shots  out  of  ten  are  short. 

With  training,  in  the  sense  of  dieting,  the  golfer 
happily  need  not  greatly  concern  Himself .  "  The 
only  difference  that  I  see,'1  said  a  famous  pro- 
fessional player,  "  between  Mr.  A.  and  Mr.  B." 
(naming  two  first-class  amateurs)  "  and  the  pro- 
fessionals is  that  they  get  mair  to  eat  and  mair 
to  drink."  The  general  intention  was  obviously 
complimentary,  but  whether  the  speaker  meant 
to  suggest  that  the  greater  opportunities  of  the 
amateur  were  helps  or  hindrances  was  less  clear. 
Of  course  it  is  possible  to  adopt  a  scheme  of  diet 
which  will  promote  so  great  a  difference  of  opinion 
between  the  inner  man  and  the  outward  eye  that 
the  ball  appeal's  a  very  hazy  object,  but  the  cure 
for  this  parlous  stale  is  to  be  sought  rather  in 
manuals  which  treat  of  medicine  than  of  golf. 
On  the  whole,  one  plays  best  when  one  is  well, 
but  not  too  well — not  too  keen — with  that  horrid 
imaginative  facultv  not  too  brightly  sensitive. 
Certain  it  is  that  an  empty  stomach  -  that  vacuum 
universally  abhorred  by  Nature  is  an  especially 
bad  basis  on  which  to  play  a  severe  match.      Feed 

the  inner  man  well  and  wisely,  but  do  not  abuse. 
The  question  of  the  amount  of  practice  which 


IbanDicapping  139 

is  beneficial  is  one  to  which  it  is  most  difficult  to 
give  at  all  a  distinct  answer.  "We  are  speaking 
now  of  the  case  of  a  man  who  has  reached  his 
standard  in  golf,  not  of  the  learner  and  the  im- 
proving player.  These  latter  can  hardly  practise 
too  much.  Above  all  it  is  useful  for  them  to  get 
a  good  long  continuous  term  of  practice  ;  other- 
wise they  are  rather  apt  to  forget,  in  the  gaps, 
what  little  they  may  have  learned  and  so  be 
obliged  to  start  again,  each  time,  almost  from 
the  beginning.  Bat  even  to  the  learner  there 
comes  a  time  at  which  he  feels  that  he  has  grown 
"  stale  " — that  the  action  of  hitting  the  ball  is 
abhorrent  to  him,  and  one  which  he  would  like  to 
pay  another  to  do  for  him.  The  course  of  the 
learner  of  golf  bears  some  resemblance  to  the  in- 
flowing tide,  he  seems  at  times  to  be  in  a  regular 
wave  of  progress,  and  advances  swimmingly  ; 
then  for  a  while  he  will  fall  back  into  a  back- 
wash and  seem  to  retrograde  ;  but  it  is  only  to 
come  on  again,  with  better  progress  than  ever, 
in  the  next  successful  wave,  so  that  by  slow  but 
sure  degrees  the  tide  flows  on.  The  beginner  will 
often  be  tempted  to  throw  up  the  game  in  sheer 
disgust  when  he  finds  himself  in  these  back- 
waters,  but  he  must  keep  up  his  spirits  by  the 
knowledge  that  others  have  passed  before  him 


HO  <3olf 

through  precisely  similar  experience  on  their  way 
to  the  high-water  mark.  Then,  as  the  learner 
proceeds,  he  will  find  frequent  cause  for  exasper- 
ation that  on  Monday,  say,  he  will  be  driving 
very  finely,  but  putting  and  approaching  like  an 
imbecile — Tuesday  will  find  him  topping  his  tee 
shots  and  "  foozling "  the  globe  through  the 
green,  but  putting  as  if  the  hole  could  not  be 
missed — on  "Wednesday  he  will,  as  likely  as  not, 
be  both  driving  and  putting  execrably  but  ap- 
proaching with  the  skill  of  a  professional.  How 
he  will  sigh,  then,  for  the  great  day,  which  seems 
as  if  it  never  would  come,  on  which  he  shail  be 
found  at  his  best  in  all  departments.  But  that  is 
the  day  for  which  all  his  practice  is  forming  him, 
and  which  nothing  but  length  of  practice  will 
ever  bring  to  pass. 

But  the  question  of  practice  becomes  more  diffi- 
cult when  we  look  at  it  from  the  point  of  view  of 
the  man  whose  game  is  crystallized,  or  who,  if  he 
be  improving  at  all,  does  so  by  degrees  so  tiny  as 
to  be  almost  imperceptible.  It  seems  as  though 
"practice  makes  perfect"  should  bean  answer  to 
the  problem  ;  but  it  is  to  be  received  with  caution. 
For  it  is  within  the  experience  of  all  of  us,  prob- 
ably, to  have  been  surprised  to  find,  after  a  long 
rest,  that  the  game  seems  easier  than  when  we 


IbanMcappfna  141 

left  it  off;  we  play  a  round  or  two  with  a  careless 
success  which  surprises  us.  Then,  if  we  are  very 
young,  we  soon  experience  the  almost  greater  and 
certainly  less  pleasing  surprise  of  finding  that  the 
cunning  of  our  unpracticed  hand  was  a  delusive 
thing,  and  that  after  these  two  or  three  first 
rounds  it  deserts  us.  Then  begins  the  old  tread- 
mill again,  until  we  grow,  by  slow  degrees,  to  re- 
establish ourselves  on  our  old,  more  or  less  satis- 
factory relations  with  the  game. 

But,  to  pursue  the  course  of  this  golfer,  who 
has  long  been  without  practice  and  has  at  length 
worked  himself  back  to  his  old  status— for  awhile 
this  fair  degree  of  skill  will  be  with  him,  but 
gradually  he  will  feel  that  sensation  of  loss  of 
keenness  and  paralyzing  staleness,  which  we 
hinted  at  before,  creeping  over  him,  and  again 
he  relapses.  The  pleasantest  thing  to  do,  in  this 
state  of  things,  is  to  take  a  holiday  for  a  while 
and  then  come  back  with  renewed  ardor.  This 
is  the  pleasantest  course,  but  it  is  not  the  best, 
for  soon  the  regained  ardor  will  wear  off  and  you 
will  be  as  bad  as  ever  ;  but  if,  on  the  other  hand, 
you  persevere  through  this  trying  course  of 
"  stale  "  and  indifferent  golf,  you  will  find,  after 
a  weary  while,  that  your  skill  and  zest  in  the 
game  are  coming  back  to  you  (how,  you  know 


143  <3olf 

not),  and  it  is  this  recovered  skill  and  vigor  which 
will  be  useful,  for  they  will  stay  with  you  and 
not  desert  you.  It  is  like  a  second  wind  which 
we  gain,  not  by  stopping  and  resting,  but  by 
going  on  while  we  are  quite  pumped  out,  until 
the  blessed  lightening  of  the  lungs  comes  to  re- 
ward our  perseverance.  It  is  in  this  condition 
only  that  the  golfer  can  be  said  to  be  in  fidl 
practice.  As  Willie  Park  lately  said  to  the  pres- 
ent writer,  "  you  need  to  be  playing  golf  prett}T 
steadily  for  six  months  before  you  can  depend  on 
your  game.1'  It  is  perfectly  true,  though  certainly 
it  sounds  very  heroic  counsel,  for  it  is  given  to 
but  few  to  be  able  to  give  up  six  months  to  golf. 
It  is  nut  meant,  however,  that  the  golfer  should 
play  every  day,  by  any  means,  of  this  period. 
Five  days  a  fortnight  is,  perhaps,  the  ideal 
amount  of  practice  for  one  who  can  thus  devote 
a  portion  of  consecutive  weeks  to  golf.  Three 
d;ivs  a  week  is  not  too  much.  Four  in  a  week  is 
rather  much  for  a  long  continuance — two  days  is 
rather  loo  little. 

These,  then,  are  the  main  facts  which  seem 
generally  to  be  acknowledged  to  be  true  about 
practice  in  golf.  A  little  of  it,  after  a  rest,  is 
rather  a  dangerous  thing— your  first  two  or  three 
rounds  will  probably  be  better  than  a  good  many 


IbanMcappina  143 

of  the  succeeding  ones.  After  }tou  have  passed 
out  of  the  trough  of  this  wave  you  will  come  out 
on  to  the  crest  of  a  wave  of  good  play,  which 
will  keep  you  going  for  a  week  or  two — then  you 
will  relapse  into  a  trough  again  ;  you  may  give 
up  the  battle,  take  a  week's  rest,  and  come  up 
again  smiling;  but  if  you  can  afford  the  time,  it 
is  best  in  the  long  run  to  keep  on  struggling  in 
this  back  eddy,  because  when  you  have  emerged 
from  it  you  will  be  in  halcyon  waters,  with  but 
brief  disturbances,  indefinitely. 

But  especially  observe,  if  you  are  able  to  give 
months,  consecutively,  to  the  game,  itis  notjy^U- 
to  play  all  day  and  every  day;  three  full  days  of 
golf  a  week  is  enough,  four  is  perhaps  an  error 
on  the  side  of  the  too  much — always  supposing 
(a  large  supposition)  that  you  prefer  quality  to 
quantity  in  your  golf. 

The  sort  of  practice  which  is  good,  but  gener- 
ally disregarded  because  it  is  dull,  is  the  practice 
which  consists  in  going  out  alone  with  the  club 
with  which  you  are  weakest  and  fighting  with  it, 
single-handed,  until  you  have  gained  the  mastery 
over  it.  You  are  unlikely  to  have  any  trouble  in 
finding  a  club  with  which  you  are  weak,  and  it 
is  very  improbable  but  that  a  few  dozen  shots 
with  it,  and  with  exclusive  attention  to  ways  and 


144  (Bolt 

means  of  dealing  with  it,  will  greatly  strengthen 
you. 

Can  the  difficulty  in  any  way  be  relieved  ? 
We  believe  that  it  would  be  greatly  overcome  by 
a  more  general  adoption  of  the  plan  of  competi- 
tion in  classes — all  who  are  in  receipt  of  twelve 
strokes,  say  or  under,  to  be  in  the  first-class  ;  all 
from  twelve  to  twenty -four  in  the  second-class ; 
and  all  upwards,  if  they  are  deemed  worthy  of 
competing  for  a  prize  at  all,  in  the  third-class. 
AVe  are  convinced  that  this  would  make  competi- 
tions far  more  satisfactory,  and  wotdd  smooth 
much  of  the  difficulty  from  the  rugged  path  of 
the  handicapper. 

In  the  meetings  of  handicap  committees  held 
under  the  present  system  it  commonly  happens 
that  the  names  of  one  or  two  men  turn  up  whose 
play  is  known  to  none  of  the  members  of  the 
committee.  In  this  event  it  is  wise  to  leave  the 
handicap  of  these  unknown  ones  standing over  un- 
til one  or  other  of  the  members  of  the  committee, 
who  shall  accept  the  task  as  his  special  business 
shall  have  made  such  inquiries  as  shall  enable 
the  handicapper  to  mete  out  something  like  justice. 
The  bete  noir  of  the  golf  handicapper  is  the  im- 
proving player.  It  is  so  very  hard  to  be  as  cruel 
to   a    man   of    this   class   as   justice    to    the  other 


IbanMcapping  145 

players  demands.  Very  often  the  improving 
player  is  almost  a  boy — always,  almost,  he  is  a 
beginner,  for  few  improve  so  fast  after  their  first 
few  years  at  golf  as  to  give  the  handicapper  any 
real  trouble  in  overtaking  them.  It  seems  pecu- 
liarly hard  to  blight  the  young  idea  just  when  it 
is  beginning  to  shoot  and  before  it  has  made  itself 
obnoxious  by  winning  prizes.  But  if  justice  is  to 
be  shown  to  the  other  players  this  must  be  done, 
and,  in  so  doing,  no  less  than  justice  is  shown  to 
the  player  who  is  penalized.  After  all,  there 
should  be  no  sentiment  about  it.  Golf,  as  a  wise 
man  once  observed,  is  not  charity. 

He  who  made  this  epigram  was  a  true  sports- 
man, for  it  was  apropos  of  a  suggestion  for  raising 
his  own  handicap  that  he  said  it.  He  declared 
that  he  did  not  want  any  more  points,  that  he 
thought  he  had  enough,  and  that  if  he  could  not 
win  at  these  points  he  did  not  care  to  win  at  all. 
This  is  a  noble  spirit.  The  handicapper's  posi- 
tion would  be  a  far  more  pleasant  one  if  it  were 
more  common.  Some  chivalrous  souls  have  it  as 
their  greatest  ambition  to  come  down  to  scratch, 
and  hail  with  delight,  as  public  recognition  of 
their  improvement,  the  reduction  of  their  odds. 
But,  like  noble  men  in  other  walks  of  life,  they 
are  in  a  small  minority. 
10 


140  <3olf 

Golfers  in  these  days  belong  to  many  clubs,  and 
it  is  very  much  the  practice  for  handicappers  to 
give  strangers  the  points  which  the  latter  have 
on  their  home  greens.  Their  handicap  at  home  is, 
of  course,  a  valuable  guide,  but  it  should  be  taken 
with  certain  reservations.  Custorahas  established 
a  sort  of  ideal  scratch  man — a  mere  invention  for 
convenience  sake,  like  the  equatorial  line — whose 
presumed  best  score  on  each  green  is  accepted 
as  the  unit  on  which  the  handicaps  are  based. 
Sometimes  exceptional  players  are  put  "behind 
scratch" — i.e.,  have  to  give  points  to  the  ideal 
scratch  man.  There  is,  therefore,  a  wise  en- 
deavor to  establish  a  uniform  unit — the  score 
of  the  ideal  scratch  man  represents,  roughly, 
about  the  same  quality  of  play  everywhere.  But 
when  the  odds  from  this  ideal  scratch  score  have 
to  be  reckoned,  it  becomes  necessary  to  take  into 
consideration  the  nature  of  the  course  on  which 
the  stranger  has  been  accustomed  to  play.  For 
illustration's  sake  we  will  suppose  a  St.  Andrews 
player  to  come  to  Sandwich,  and  to  tell  the  Sand- 
wich handicappers  that  his  odds  ;it  St.  Andrews 
are  eighteen.  To  have  such  Long  odds  as  these 
it  is  fair  to  presume  that  lie  is  either  a,  short  driver 
or  a  very  uncertain  one.  In  either  ease  a  handi- 
cap of  eighteen  will  be  of  greater  value  to  him  at 


IbanDicappina  147 

St.  Andrews  than  it  will  be  at  Sandwich.  At  St. 
Andrews  there  are  no  long  carries  from  the  tee,  and 
there  are  but  few  places  where  a  topped  shot  gets 
badly  punished.  The  characteristics  of  Sandwich 
are  just  the  reverse.  A  short  driver  is  heavily  pen- 
alized by  his  inability  to  carry  bunkers  which  al- 
most always  confront  a  Sandwich  tee;  and  a 
topped  ball  at  very  many  of  the  holes  (notably 
at  the  Maider)  entails  penalties  which  are  quite 
indefinitely  large.  So,  if  eighteen  is  a  just  handi- 
cap at  St.  Andrews  for  our  visitor  to  Sandwich, 
he  will  require  more  points  on  the  southern  green. 
And  this  principle  must  always  be  present  to  the 
mind  of  the  handicapper  who  is  fixing  the  odds 
for  a  stranger.  At  North  Berwick  a  clever  iron 
player  and  good  putter  will  require  very  few 
odds,  though  his  driving  may  be  so  indifferent 
that  he  would  need  quite  a  large  handicap  on 
longer  greens.  Again,  a  man  who  has  learned 
all  his  golf  on  an  inland  course  will  be  very  much 
handicapped,  to  his  disadvantage,  by  the  change 
to  a  sandy  links — and  vice  versa.  All  these  con- 
siderations should  enter  into  the  complicated 
business  of  the  handicapper,  and  each  should  be 
given  its  due  weight. 

The  handicap  committee  is  generally  a  small 
body,  appointed  either  by  the  members  or  by  the 


148  <3olf 

general  committee  of  the  club.  It  is  advisable 
that  it  should  not  be  too  large  a  body,  for,  though 
in  the  multitude  of  counselors  there  may  be  much 
wisdom,  it  is  certain  that  there  will  be  much  loss 
of  time.  Three  or  five  are  good  numbers  for  the 
handicap  committee.  Certainly  it  should  be  an 
odd  number,  so  that  in  case  of  a  vote  being  taken 
there  may  be  a  majority.  All  the  members  ought 
to  sign  their  name  to  the  handicap  list,  when  com- 
pleted, before  it  is  put  up  in  the  club  room  ;  and 
it  is  scarcely  necessary  to  say,  after  having  once 
been  signed  and  posted,  it  should  on  no  account 
be  altered.  The  members  of  the  handicap  com- 
mittee, however  few,  should  be  so  selected  as  to 
represent  different  branches  of  the  golfing  com- 
munity. For,  as  a  general  thing,  men  play 
mostly  with  their  equals,  and  can  form  a  better 
opinion  of  the  play  of  those  whose  performances 
are  somewhat  on  a  par  with  their  own.  A  long- 
odds  man  will  not  know  much  about  the  short- 
handicap  players,  nor  will  a  scratch-man  often 
play  withstroke-a-hole  men.  Therefore,  as  things 
stand  at  present— that  is  to  say,  while  competi- 
tions  in  classes  are  the  exception  rather  than  the 
rule  -  it  is  ndvis-ible  to  put  on  your  handicap  com- 
mittee one  who  shall  represent  the  scratch- 
pi  avers,  one   who  shall   be   able  to  speak   to  the 


f>an&fcappfnfl  149 

comparative  merits  of  those  who  receive  twelve 
strokes,  or  thereabouts,  and  one  for  the  people 
who  are  in  the  lowest  grade  of  golf.  Thus  you 
will  have  the  best  chance  of  arriving  at  justice 
for  the  whole  body  of  players. 

So  far  we  have  spoken  entirely  of  competitions 
by  score.  A  modification,  and  an  exceedingly  in- 
genious one,  has  been  lately  introduced  into  the 
golfing  world  under  the  name  of  Colonel  Bogey. 
Colonel  Bogey,  as  his  name  implies,  is  a  sort  of 
ghost ;  and  against  him  all  the  players  who  enter 
for  the  Bogey  competition  have  to  match  them- 
selves. The  score  of  Colonel  Bogey  is  fixed  by 
the  committee  of  the  club,  or  by  some  person  in 
authority  naming  the  number  of  strokes  which 
the  ghostly  Colonel  is  supposed  to  take  to  each 
hole.  This  score  is  fixed  before  the  golfers  go  out 
to  play ;  so  that  at  each  hole  the  player  knows 
exactly  what  he  has  to  do  in  order  to  halve  with 
or  win  from  his  ghostly  opponent.  At  the  con- 
clusion of  the  round,  the  cards  are  handed  in,  and 
the  man  who  has  beaten  Colonel  Bogey  by  most 
holes,  or  been  defeated  by  him  by  fewest  holes,  is 
the  winner  of  the  competition.  If  two  or  more 
have  tied,  on  this  showing,  the  cards  of  the  win- 
ners are  compared  against  each  other,  and  he 
who  is  one  or  more  holes   up,  as  against  the 


150  (Bolt 

other  or  others,  is  declared  the  aosolute  win- 
ner. 

The  merit  of  this  plan  is  that  it  enables  a  large 
number  of  competitors  to  be  brought  together, 
and  their  performance  to  be  tested  by  the  result 
of  a  single  round,  while  they  are  all  the  while 
playing  match-play—  i.  e.,  by  holes — and  not  score- 
play.  There  is  no  doubt  that  match-play  is  the 
original  idea  of  the  game  of  golf.  Score  play  is 
but  a  device  for  bringing  a  number  of  players  to- 
gether so  that  their  merits  in  a  single  round  may 
be  compared.  So  the  invention  of  Colonel  Bogey 
combines  these  two  advantages. 

In  a  match  of  this  sort  it  is  evident  that  the 
odds  given  to  each  man  must  be  not  only  named 
in  the  gross,  but  that  the  holes  at  which  he  is  to 
take  these  odds  must  also  be  stated.  And  this 
also  is  determined  by  a  body  having  authority, 
such  as  the  committee  of  the  club.  There  is 
usually  a  printed  card  informing  players  at  what 
holes  three  strokes  in  the  round  are  to  be  taken, 
at  what  holes  four  strokes,  and  so  on.  Should  a, 
player  receive  more  than  eighteen  Btrokes  on  the 
round,  there  will  be  some  holes  at  which  he  will 
receive  two  st  rokes. 

But  in  match-play  a  player  will  not  receive 
as  many  strokes  as  he  would  receive  if  playing 


IbanMcappfng  101 

by  score.  The  reason  of  this  is  that  the  inferior 
player,  generally  speaking,  is  more  unsteady  than 
the  better  player — he  is  more  liable  to  take  a 
very  large  number  over  one  or  more  holes  at 
which  he  comes  to  grief ;  he  is  less  able  to  ex- 
tricate himself  from  difficulties.  It  is  probable 
that  at  one  hole,  at  least,  on  the  round,  he  will 
lose  several  strokes  more  than  he  will  gain  on 
any  other  hole  from  a  stronger  and  more  steady 
opponent.  But  this  consideration  becomes  of  far 
less  weight  in  a  whole  match.  The  hole  is  lost, 
whether  to  Bogey  or  to  a  mundane  opponent, 
and  there  is  an  end  of  it.  He  loses  one  hole,  in- 
stead of  a  formidable  number  of  strokes.  Two- 
thirds  or  three-eighths  of  the  just  number  of  odds 
in  score-play  seems  to  be  recognized  as  about  the 
fair  proportion  in  hole-play  ;  and  generally  speak- 
ing an  odd  fraction  is  determined  in  favor  of  the 
giver  of  odds.  Colonel  Bogey  is  an  estimable 
person,  and  we  fully  expect  to  find  this  method  of 
handicapping  come  more  and  more  into  general 
favor.  It  is  certainly  more  pleasant  to  play  a  hole 
match,  even  against  an  opponent  of  supernatural 
accuracy,  than  to  play  that  horrid  score  game, 
with  the  ever-present  fear  of  an  impossible  lie  and 
a  double  figure  in  the  score  as  its  result. 

The  score  of  Colonel  Bogey,  who  is  a  scratch- 


153  <3olf 

player,  is  generally  fixed  on  the  assumption  that 
the  Colonel  makes  no  mistakes,  and  that  if  he 
can  reach  the  green  with  any  iron  club  he  will 
not  fail  to  hole  out  in  two  more.  It  is  a  high, 
but  not  an  absolutely  heroic  standard  ;  but  it 
must  always  be  remembered  that  the  Colonel  is 
affected  by  no  eccentricities  of  wind  or  weather, 
and  that  he  never  gets  a  bad  lie,  loses  his  nerve 
or  misses  a  short  putt. 

It  is  usual,  as  we  have  implied,  to  make  handi- 
capping for  hole-play  a  simple  matter  of  arith- 
metical deduction  from  the  odds  given  in  score- 
play.  This  is  a  rough-and-ready  method  which 
might  be  better;  for  some  men  are  conspicuously 
better  score-players  than  match-players — others 
are  markedly  the  reverse.  The  man  who  gets 
eighteen  points,  say,  in  score-play  by  reason  of  his 
woeful  unsteadiness  will  be  better  off  with  twelve 
in  match-play  ;  whereas  a  man  who  gets  eighteen 
because  he  is  such  a  poor  driver,  though  a  steady 
one,  will  he  much  worse  off  with  twelve  in  match- 
play.  The  steady  man  scarcely  lias  it  in  him  to 
halve  an  occasional  hole  with  the  scratch-player  ; 
whereas  the  unsteady  man,  in  an  occasional  bril- 
liant interval,  can  do  a  hole  .-is  well  ;is  anybody. 
A  scratch-player  would  far  rather  give  the  un- 
Bteady  one  eighteen  strokes  and  play  by  score; 


"IbanMcapptnfl  153 

but  to  the  steady  potterer  he  would  far  rather 
give  twelve  strokes  and  play  him  a  match  by 
holes.  But  our  general  system  of  handicapping 
— in  mercy  to  the  kandicapper,  whose  duties  are 
already  quite  sufficiently  arduous  and  complicated 
— takes  no  note  of  these  fine  differences.  Never- 
theless, in  handicapping  for  private  matches,  the 
scratch-player — who  seldom  arrives  at  this  pitch 
of  excellence  without  a  course  of  experience 
which  has  made  him  wary — may  certainly  with 
justice  take  a  note  of  it,  and  arrange  the  plan  of 
campaign  conformably. 

Perhaps,  however,  this  is  such  a  fine  and  diffi- 
cult difference  that  the  handicappers  do  wisely 
to  ignore  it.  But  there  is  a  case  to  which  the 
arithmetical  method  is  very  commonly  applied 
and  to  which  a  certain  modification  should  be 
made  in  its  application.  "We  refer  to  the  case  of 
foursome  competitions.  The  common  method 
here  is  to  add  together  the  points  of  each  partner 
and  give  the  combined  pair  the  sum  of  these 
points  divided  by  two.  It  is  very  simple  and  it 
sounds  as  if  it  ought  to  be  very  right ;  but  in 
point  of  fact  it  is  not  so.  The  reason  of  its  failure 
is  that  a  combination  of  a  strong  player  with  a 
weak  player  will  ordinarily  defeat  a  combination 
of  two  medium  players,  though  the  sum  of  the 


154  ©Olf 

individual  handicaps  of  each  pair  respectively 
may  be  identical.  Some  of  the  very  finest  four- 
some rounds  have  been  made  by  a  strong  player 
in  combination  with  a  weak  but  steady  partner. 
So  fully  is  this  realized  that  some  golfers,  who 
are  by  no  means  strong  when  playing  their  own 
ball,  are  quite  celebrated  as  partners  in  a  four- 
some. The  late  Mr.  John  Blackwood  was  a  well- 
known  case  in  point,  and  Captain  Molesworth, 
E.  X.,  is  another.  The  truth  is,  that  if  a  man  be 
a  good  approacher  and  putter,  thirty  or  forty 
yards'  deficiency  in  the  drive  becomes  of  very 
little  moment  when  a  long  driver  is  playing  the 
alternate  strokes. 

Therefore  we  would  urge  most  strongly  on 
handicap  committees  the  advisability  of  taking 
this  fact  into  their  calculations  when  a  foursome 
competition  is  forward, and  suggest  that  a  special 
handicap,  which  should  take  into  account  the 
strength  of  the  combinations  as  well  as  of  the 
individuals,  would  produce  much  better  results. 

A  last  word  with  regard  t<>  the  manifold  dm  as 
of  the  handicapper  relates  to  competitions  in 
which  holesaregiven  in  lieu  of  strokes.  IVonsense 
is  often  talked  in  this  regard,  as  in  others.  Some 
contend  that,  if  A  can  give  15  three  holes  up  and 
B  can  give  0   three  holes  up,  it  follows   that  A 


IbanMcapping  155 

can  give  C  six  holes  up.  The  absurdity  of  this 
is  evident  if  it  be  supposed,  for  illustration's  sake, 
that  A  can  give  B  nine  holes  up,  and  13  can  give 
C  nine  holes  up.  It  is  pretty  clear  that  A  would 
not  have  a  very  good  chance  of  winning  against 
C  if  he  gave  him  eighteen  holes  up.  It  is  a  ver- 
sion of  the  old  fallacy  of  Achilles  and  the  tor- 
toise. A  more  pertinent  question  is  the  relation 
between  odds  given  by  strokes  and  odds  given  by 
holes.  Roughly  speaking,  between  good  players, 
a  third — or  six  strokes — is  equivalent  to  some- 
thing a  little  over  three  holes  up,  with  eighteen 
to  play.  But  when  we  come  to  low  grades  of 
golf,  holes  up  become  relatively  more  valuable, 
because  a  third  means  more  between  better 
players  than  between  inferior  ones. 

Between  good  players  there  is  seldom  a  differ- 
ence of  more  than  a  stroke  at  any  given  hole ; 
between  bad  players  it  is  seldom  that  the  differ- 
ence is  so  little  as  one  stroke — therefore,  there  is 
far  less  chance  of  the  stroke  given  as  odds  beino- 
of  service.  But  the  three  holes  up  are  solid  facts, 
which  must  have  weight  in  the  result.  This 
again,  then,  is  a  subtle  point  which  the  handi- 
capper  should  not  neglect  if  he  has  to  arrange  for 
a  competition  in  which  holes  are  to  be  given. 

Other  fanciful  modes  of  handicapping,  such  as 


156  eoif 

playing  with  but  one  club  against  an  opponent 
with  a  whole  set — or  permission  to  say  "  Bo  ! ,J 
three  times  on  a  round  in  order  to  put  the  adver- 
sary off  his  stroke — do  not  need  discussion  ;  but 
we  would  close  this  chapter  by  again  reminding 
the  golfer  that  the  handicapper  is  a  person  who 
voluntarily  and  without  remuneration  accepts  a 
deal  of  trouble,  that  it  is  the  duty  of  every  golfer 
to  make  the  handicapper's  task  as  little  difficult 
and  as  little  unpleasant  as  possible,  and  that  it  is 
in  the  very  Avorst  taste  to  grumble  at  the  efforts 
of  those  who,  however  unsuccessfully,  have  pre- 
sumably done  their  best. 

When  the  handicapper  has  himself  to  be  handi- 
capped it  is  advisable  that  he  should  leave  the 
committee-room  and  permit  his  colleagues  to 
settle  his  handicap  without  his  assistance. 


Cbe  IRulea  157 


CHAPTEE  VIII 

THE    KULES 

^  The  rules  of  golf  are  less  an  invented  canon 
than  a  natural  growth.  It  is  from  St.  Andrews 
that  all  clubs,  more  or  less  literally,  took  their 
rules — the  original  stock  was  of  St.  Andrews 
growth  ;  but  since  the  St.  Andrews  rules,  until 
recently,  dealt  with  such  special  features  as  the 
Eden,  the  burn  and  the  station-master's  garden 
and  so  forth,  other  clubs  were  not  able  to  make  use 
of  the  St.  Andrews  rules  in  full,  by  reason  of  the 
presence  of  these  purely  local  enactments.  There- 
fore the  St.  Andrews  Club,  in  response  to  a  very 
generally  expressed  desire  for  uniformity,  and  for 
some  code  which  might  be  universal,  did,  in  Sep- 
tember, 1891,  adopt  a  scheme  laid  before  them  by 
a  sub-committee,  whereby  the  rules,  which  are  of 
general  application,  are  printed  as  one  body,  with 
the  local  by-laws,  under  a  separate  heading,  ap- 
pended thereto.  Thus  all  clubs  are  now  able  to 
transcribe  the  general  body  of  rules  and  adopt 
them  for  their  own  use,  and  to  substitute  for  the 


158  <3olf 

St.  Andrews  local  by-laws,  such  by-laws  as  the 
individual  features  of  their  own  links  may  make 
requisite.  £ 

We  give,  therefore,  both  the  general  rules, 
which  may  be  universally  used,  and  the  St. 
Andrews  local  by-laws  as  a  pattern  of  legislation 
for  other  localities.  We  append  also  a  table 
showing  the  length  of  the  respective  holes  on  the 
Royal  and  Ancient  Links,  which,  in  the  quality 
of  fine  length  of  holes,  excels  every  other;  and 
further,  we  give  a  table  showing  at  what  holes 
strokes  are  to  be  taken  in  the  competition  for  the 
Jubilee  Yase,  for  this  table,  too,  may  be  found  a 
useful  model  by  other  clubs. 

At  the  end  is  a  glossary  of  the  technical  terms 
in  common  use  in  the  game. 

Since  the  publication  of  the  last  edition  of  this 
book  a  committee,  under  the  name  of  the  Rules 
Committee,  has  been  appointed  by  the  Royal  and 
Ancient  Golf  ( Hub  of  St.  Andrews.  It  consists  of 
some  fifteen  members,  all  being  members  of  the 
Royal  and  Ancient  Club,  but  at  the  same  time — so 
wide  is  this  great  ( Hub's  membership  -representa- 
tiveof  golfing  opinion  in  all  the  corners  of  Great 
Britain.  The  office  of  the  members  of  this  Com- 
mittee, which  is  a  permanent  body,  is  to  give  an- 
swers on  any   vexed  questions  of  the  rules  that 


£be  IRules  159 

are  submitted  for  their  decision,  to  act  as  in- 
terpreters of  the  rules  as  at  present  constituted; 
and  at  the  moment  of  writing  they  are  consider 
ing  the  project  of  verbally  revising  the  whole 
body  of  the  rules.  Their  functions,  however,  are 
primarily  interpretative,  not  legislative,  and  even 
their  interpretations  only  have  a  temporary  au- 
thority— that  is  to  say  until  the  ensuing  general 
meeting  of  the  lioyal  and  Ancient  Club  to  which 
they  are  submitted,  and  by  which  they  are  either 
sent  into  limbo  by  rejection  or  converted  into  law 
by  confirmation.  This  Committee,  therefore,  thus 
appointed  and  constituted,  forms  that  central  body, 
invested  with  recognized  authority,  for  the  de- 
cision of  most  points  of  golfing  law,  that  golfers 
in  general,  and  especially  English  golfers,  have 
been  asking  for  many  years  past,  but  have  never 
been  able  to  arrive  at  until  the  Royal  and  Ancient 
Club  took  the  steps  described. 

RULES    FOR    THE    GAME    OF    GOLF 

1.  The  Game  of  Golf  is  played  by  two  or  more 
sides,  each  playing  its  own  ball.  A  side  may 
consist  of  one  or  more  persons. 

2.  The  game  consists  in  each  side  playing  a  ball 
from  a  tee  into  a  hole  by  successive  strokes,  and 


1G0  <3olf 

the  hole  is  won  by  the  side  holing  its  ball  in  the 
fewest  strokes,  except  as  otherwise  provided  for 
in  the  rules.  If  two  sides  hole  out  in  the  same 
number  of  strokes,  the  hole  is  halved. 

3.  The  teeing-ground  shall  be  indicated  by  two 
marks  placed  in  a  line  at  right  angles  to  the 
course,  and  the  player  shall  not  tee  in  front  of, 
nor  on  either  side  of,  these  marks,  nor  more  than 
two  club  lengths  behind  them.  A  ball  played 
from  outside  the  limits  of  the  teeing-ground,  as 
thus  defined,  may  be  recalled  by  the  opposite  side. 

The  holes  shall  be  4J  inches  in  diameter,  and  at 
least  4  inches  deep. 

4.  The  ball  must  be  fairly  struck  at,  and  not 
pushed,  scraped  or  spooned,  under  penalty  of  the 
loss  of  the  hole.  Any  movement  of  the  club  which 
is  intended  to  strike  the  ball  is  a  stroke. 

5.  The  game  commences  by  each  side  playing 
a  ball  from  the  first  teeing-ground.  In  a  match 
with  two  or  more  on  a  side,  the  partners  shall 

^--Strike  off  alternately  from  the  tecs,  and  shall 
strike  alternately  during  the  play  »>l*  the  hole. 

The  players  who  are  to  strike  against  each  other 
shall  be  named  at  starting,  and  shall  continue  in 
the  same  order  during  the  match. 

The  player  who  shall  play  first  on  each  side 
shall  be  named  by  his  own  side. 


Cbe  IRulea  161 

In  case  of  failure  to  agree,  it  shall  be  settled 
by  lot  or  toss  which  skle  shall  have  the  option 
of  leading. 

6.  If  a  player  shall  play  when  his  partner  should 
have  done  so,  his  side  shall  lose  the  hole,  except 
in  the  case  of  the  tee  shot,  when  the  stroke  may 
be  recalled  at  the  option  of  the  opponents. 

7.  The  side  winning  a  hole  shall  lead  in  start- 
ing for  the  next  hole,  and  may  recall  the  oppo- 
nent's stroke  should  he  play  out  of  order.  This 
privilege  is  called  the  "  honor."  On  starting 
for  a  new  match,  the  winner  of  the  long  match 
in  the  previous  round  is  entitled  to  the  "  honor." 
Should  the  first  match  have  been  halved,  the 
winner  of  the  last  hole  gained  is  entitled  to  the 
"  honor." 

8.  One  round  of  the  Links — generally  18  holes 
— is  a  match,  unless  otherwise  agreed  upon.  The 
match  is  won  by  the  side  which  gets  more  holes 
ahead  than  there  remain  holes  to  be  played,  or 
by  the  side  winning  the  last  hole  when  the  match 
was  all  even  at  the  second  last  hole.  If  both  sides 
have  won  the  same  number,  it  is  a  halved  match. 

9.  After  the  balls  are  struck  from  the  tee,  the 
ball  farthest  from  the  hole  to  which  the  parties 
are  playing  shall  be  played  first,  except  as  other- 
wise provided  for  in  the  rules.     Should  the  wrong 

ii 


162  <3olt 

side  play  first,  the  opponent  may  recall  the  stroke 
before  his  side  is  played. 

10.  Unless  with  the  opponent's  consent,  a  ball 
struck  from  the  tee  shall  not  be  changed,  touched 
or  moved  before  the  hole  is  played  out,  under 
the  penalty  of  one  stroke,  except  as  otherwise 
provided  for  in  the  rules. 

11.  In  playing  through  the  green,  all  loose  im- 
pediments, within  a  club's  length  of  a  ball  which 
is  not  lying  in  or  touching  a  hazard,  may  be  re- 
moved, but  loose  impediments  which  are  more 
than  a  club's  length  from  the  ball  shall  not  be 
removed  under  the  penalty  of  one  stroke. 

12.  Before  striking  at  the  ball,  the  player  shall 
not  move,  bend  or  break  anything  fixed  or  grow- 
ing near  the  ball,  except  in  the  act  of  placing  his 
feet  on  the  ground  for  the  purpose  of  addressing 
the  ball,  and  in  soling  his  club  to  address  the  ball, 
under  the  penalty  of  the  loss  of  the  hole,  except 
as  provided  for  in  Rule  18. 

13.  A  ball  stuck  fast  in  wet  ground  or  sand 
may  be  taken  out  and  replaced  loosely  in  the 
hole  which  it  has  made. 

1  I.  When  a  ball  lies  in  or  touches  a  hazard, 
the  club  shall  not  touch  the  ground,  nor  shall 
anything  be  touched  <>r  moved  before  the  player 
strikes  at   the   ball,  except  that  the   player   may 


Zbc  IRules  163 

place  his  feet  firmly  on  the  ground  for  the  pur- 
pose of  addressing  the  ball,  under  the  penalty  of 
the  loss  of  the  hole. 

But  if  in  the  backward  as  in  the  downward 
swing,  any  grass,  bent,  whin,  or  other  growing 
substance,  or  the  side  of  a  bunker,  a  wall,  paling, 
or  other  immovable  obstacle  be  touched,  no  pen- 
alty shall  be  incurred. 

15.  A  "  hazard  "  shall  be  any  bunker  of  what- 
ever nature : — water,  sand,  loose  earth,  mole  hills, 
paths,  roads  or  railways,  whins,  bashes,  rushes, 
rabbit  scrapes,  fences,  ditches,  or  anything  which 
is  not  the  ordinary  green  of  the  course,  except 
sand  blown  on  to  the  grass  by  wind,  or  sprinkled 
on  grass  for  the  preservation  of  the  Links,  or 
snow  or  ice,  or  bare  patches  on  the  course. 

16.  A  player  or  a  player's  caddie  shall  not 
press  down  or  remove  any  irregularities  of  sur- 
face near  the  ball,  except  at  the  teeing-ground, 
under  the  penalty  of  the  loss  of  the  hole. 

17.  If  any  vessel,  wheel-barrow,  tool,  roller, 
grass-cutter,  box,  or  other  similar  obstruction  has 
been  placed  upon  the  course,  such  obstruction 
may  be  removed.  A  ball  lying  on  or  touching 
such  obstruction,  or  on  clothes,  or  nets,  or  on 
ground  under  repair  or  temporarily  covered  up 
or  opened,  may  be  lifted  and    dropped  at    the 


164  Golf 

nearest  point  of  the  course,  but  a  ball  lifted  in  a 
hazard  shall  be  dropped  in  the  hazard.  .  A  ball 
lying  in  a  golf  hole  or  flag  hole,  may  be  lifted 
and  dropped  not  more  than  a  club's  length  behind 
such  hole. 

18.  When  a  ball  is  completely  covered  with  fog, 
bent,  whins,  etc.,  only  so  much  thereof  shall  be 
set  aside  as  that  the  player  shall  have  a  view  of 
his  ball  before  he  plays,  whether  in  a  line  with 
the  hole  or  otherwise. 

19.  "When  a  ball  is  to  be  dropped,  the  player 
shall  drop  it.  lie  shall  front  the  hole,  stand  erect 
behind  the  hazard,  keep  the  spot  from  which  the 
ball  was  lifted  (or  in  the  case  of  running  water, 
the  spot  at  which  it  entered)  in  a  line  between 
him  and  the  hole,  and  drop  the  ball  behind  him 
from  his  head,  standing  as  far  behind  the  hazard 
as  he  may  please. 

l;o.  When  the  balls  in  play  lie  within  six  inches 
of  each  other — measured  from  their  nearest  points 
— the  ball  nearer  the  hole  shall  be  lifted  until  the 
other  is  played,  and  shall  then  be  replaced  as 
nearly  as  possible  in  its  original  position.  Should 
the  ball  farther  from  the  hole  be  accidentally 
moved  in  so  doing,  it  shall  be  replaced,  Should 
the  lie  of  the  lifted  ball  be  altered  by  the  oppo- 
nent in  playing,  it  may  be  placed  in  a  lie  near  to, 


Ebe  IRutes  165 

and  as  nearly  as  possible  similar  to,  that  from 
which  it  was  lifted. 

21.  If  the  ball  lie  or  be  lost  in  water,  the  player 
may  drop  a  ball,  under  the  penalty  of  one  stroke. 

22.  Whatever  happens  by  accident  to  a  ball  in 
motion,  such  as  its  being  deflected  or  stopped  by 
any  agency  outside  the  match,  or  by  the  fore- 
caddie,  is  a  "  rub  of  the  green,"  and  the  ball  shall 
be  played  from  where  it  lies.  Should  a  ball  lodge 
in  anything  moving,  such  ball,  or  if  it  cannot  be 
recovered,  another  ball  shall  be  dropped  as  nearly 
as  possible  at  the  spot  where  the  object  was  when 
the  ball  lodged  in  it.  But  if  a  ball  at  rest  be  dis- 
placed by  any  agency  outside  the  match,  the  player 
shall  drop  it  or  another  ball  as  nearly  as  possible 
at  the  spot  where  it  lay.  On  the  putting-green 
the  ball  may  be  replaced  by  hand. 

23.  If  the  player's  ball  strike,  or  be  accidentally 
moved  by  an  opponent,  or  an  opponent's  caddie 
or  clubs,  the  opponent  loses  the  hole. 

24.  If  the  player's  ball  strike,  or  be  stopped  by 
himself  or  his  partner,  or  either  of  their  caddies 
or  clubs,  or  if,  while  in  the  act  of  playing,  the 
player  strike  the  ball  twice,  his  side  loses  the 
hole. 

25.  If  the  player,  when  not  making  a  stroke,  or 
his  partner  or  either  of  their  caddies  touch  their 


1GG  <3olf 

side's  ball,  except  at  the  tee,  so  as  to  move  it,  or  by 
touching  anything  cause  it  to  move,  the  penalty  is 
one  stroke. 

26.  A  ball  is  considered  to  have  been  moved  if 
it  leave  its  original  position  in  the  least  degree 
and  stop  in  another;  but  if  a  player  touch  his  ball 
and  thereby  cause  it  to  oscillate,  without  causing 
it  to  leave  its  original  position,  it  is  not  moved  in 
the  sense  of  Rule  25. 

27.  A  player's  side  loses  a  stroke  if  he  play  the 
opponent's  ball,  unless  (1)  the  opponent  then  play 
the  player's  ball,  whereby  the  penalty  is-  canceled, 
and  the  hole  must  be  played  out  with  the  balls 
thus  exchanged,  or  (2)  the  mistake  occur  through 
wrong  information  given  by  the  opponent,  in 
which  case  the  mistake,  if  discovered  before  the 
opponent  has  played,  must  be  rectilied  by  placing 
a  bull  ;is  nearly  as  possible  where  the  opponent's 
ball  lay. 

If  it  be  discovered  before  either  side  has  struck 
oil'  at  the  tee  that  one  side  lias  played  out  the 
previous  hole  with  the  ball  of  a  party  not  engaged 
in  the  match,  that  side  loses  that  hole. 

28.  If  a  ball  be  lost,  the  player's  side  loses  the 
hole.  A  ball  shall  be  held  as  lost  if  it  be  not 
found  within  live  minutes  after  the  search  is  be- 


Cbc  IRules  1G7 

29.  A  ball  must  be  played  wherever  it  lies,  or 
the  hole  be  given  up,  except  as  otherwise  provided 
for  in  the  Rules. 

30.  The  term  "  Putting-Green  "  shall  mean  the 
ground  within  20  yards  of  the  hole,  excepting 
hazards. 

31.  All  loose  impediments  may  be  removed 
from  the  putting-green,  except  the  opponent's 
ball  when  at  a  greater  distance  from  the  player's 
than  six  inches. 

32.  In  a  match  of  three  or  more  sides,  a  ball  in 
any  degree  lying  between  the  player  and  the  hole 
must  be  lifted,  or,  if  on  the  putting-green,  holed 
out. 

33.  When  the  ball  is  on  the  putting-green,  no 
mark  shall  be  placed,  nor  line  drawn  as  a  guide. 
The  line  to  the  hole  may  be  pointed  out,  but  the 
person  doing  so  may  not  touch  the  ground  with 
the  hand  or  club. 

The  player  ma)7  have  his  own  or  his  partner's 
caddie  to  stand  at  the  hole,  but  none  of  the  play- 
ers or  their  caddies  may  move  so  as  to  shield  the 
ball  from,  or  expose  it  to,  the  wind. 

The  penalty  for  any  breach  of  this  rule  is  the 
loss  of  the  hole. 

34.  The  player,  or  his  caddie,  may  remove  (but 
not  press  down)  sand,  earth,  worm  casts  or  snow 


168  <3olf 

lying  around  the  hole  or  on.  the  line  of  his  putt. 
This  shall  be  done  by  brushing  lightly  with  the 
hand  only  across  the  putt  and  nut  along  it. 
The  putting  line  must  not  be  touched  by  club, 
hand  or  foot,  except  as  above  authorized,  or 
immediately  in  front  of  the  ball  in  the  act  of 
addressing  it,  under  the  penalty  of  the  loss  of 
the  hole. 

35.  Either  side  is  entitled  to  have  the  flag-stick 
removed  when  approaching  the  hole.  If  the  ball 
rest  against  the  flag-stick  when  in  the  hole,  the 
player  shall  be  entitled  to  remove  the  stick,  and, 
if  the  ball  fall  in,  it  shall  be  considered  as  holed 
out  in  the  previous  stroke. 

36.  A  player  shall  not  play  until  the  opponent's 
ball  shall  have  ceased  to  roll,  under  the  penalty 
of  one  stroke.  Should  the  player's  ball  knock  in 
the  opponent's  ball,  the  latter  shall  be  counted  as 
holed  out  in  the  previous  stroke.  If,  in  playing, 
the  player's  ball  displace  the  opponent's  ball,  the 
opponent  shall  have  the  option  of  replacing  it. 

:'.;.  A  player  shall  not  ask  for  advice,  nor  be 
knowingly  advised  aboul  the  game  by  word,  look 
or  gesture  from  any  one  except  his  own  caddie, 
or   his   partner  <>;•   partner's   caddie,   under  the 

pen  all  V  of  t  he  loss  of  t  he  hole. 

38.    [fa  ball  split  into  separate  pieces,  another 


Cbe  1Rule6  160 

ball  may  be  put  down  where  the  largest  portion 
lies,  or  if  two  pieces  are  apparently  of  equal  size, 
it  may  be  put  where  either  piece  lies,  at  the 
option  of  the  player.  If  a  ball  crack  or  become 
unplayable,  the  player  may  change  it,  on  intimat- 
ing to  his  opponent  his  intention  to  do  so. 

39.  A  penalty  stroke  shall  not  be  counted  the 
stroke  of  a  player,  and  shall  not  affect  the  rotation 
of  play. 

40.  Should  any  dispute  arise  on  any  point,  the 
players  have  the  right  of  determining  the  party 
or  parties  to  whom  the  dispute  shall  be  referred, 
but  should  they  not  agree,  either  party  may  refer 
it  to  the  Green  Committee  of  the  Green  where 
the  dispute  occurs,  and  their  decision  shall  be 
final.  Should  the  dispute  not  be  covered  by  the 
Eules  of  Golf,  the  arbiters  must  decide  it  by 
equity. 


SPECIAL   EULES    FOR   MEDAL   PLAY 

1.  In  Club  competitions,  the  competitor  doing 
the  stipulated  course  in  the  fewest  strokes  shall 
be  the  winner. 

2.  If  the  lowest  score  be  made  by  two  or  more 
competitors,  the  ties  shall  be  decided  bv  another 


i;o  <3oit 

round  to  be  played  cither  on  the  same  or  on  any 
other  day  as  the  Captain,  or,  in  his  absence,  the 
Secretary,  shall  direct. 

3.  New  holes  shall  be  made  for  the  Medal 
Round,  and  thereafter  no  member  shall  play 
any  stroke  on  a  putting-green  before  compet- 
ing. 

4.  The  scores  shall  be  kept  by  a  special  marker, 
or  by  the  competitors  noting  each  other's  scores. 
The  scores  marked  shall  be  checked  at  the  finish 
of  each  hole.  On  completion  of  the  course,  the 
score  of  the  player  shall  be  signed  by  the  person 
keeping  the  score  and  handed  to  the  Secre- 
tary. 

5.  If  a  ball  be  lost,  the  player  shall  return  as 
nearly  as  possible  to  the  spot  where  the  ball 
was  struck,  tee  another  ball,  and  lose  a  stroke. 
If  the  lost  ball  be  found  before  he  has  struck  the 
other  ball,  the  first  shall  continue  in  play. 

P>.  If  the  player's  ball  strike  himself,  or  his 
clubs  or  caddie,  or  if,  in  the  act  of  playing,  the 
player  strike  the  ball  twice,  the  penalty  shall  be 
one  stroke. 

7.  If  a  competitor's  ball  strike  the  otherplayer, 
or  his  clubs  or  caddie,  it  is  a  "  rub  of  the  green," 
and  the  ball  shall  be  played  from  where  it 
lies. 


£be  IRules  171 

8.  A  ball  may,  under  a  penalty  of  two  strokes, 
be  lifted  out  of  a  difficulty  of  any  description,  and 
be  teed  behind  same. 

9.  All  balls  shall  be  holed  out,  and  when  play 
is  on  the  putting-green,  the  flag  shall  be  removed, 
and  the  competitor  whose  ball  is  nearest  the  hole 
shall  have  the  option  of  holing  out  first,  or  of 
lifting  his  ball,  if  it  be  in  such  a  position  that  it 
might,  if  left,  give  an  advantage  to  the  other 
competitor.  Throughout  the  green  a  competitor 
can  have  the  other  competitors  ball  lifted,  if  he 
find  that  it  interferes  with  his  stroke. 

10.  A  competitor  may  not  play  with  a  profes- 
sional, and  he  may  not  receive  advice  from  any 
one  but  his  caddie. 

A  forecaddie  may  be  employed. 

11.  Competitors  may  not  discontinue  play  be- 
cause of  bad  weather. 

12.  The  penalty  for  a  breach  of  any  rule  shall 
be  disqualification. 

13.  Any  dispute  regarding  the  play  shall  be 
determined  by  the  Green  Committee. 

14.  The  ordinary  Rules  of  Golf,  so  far  as  they 
are  not  at  variance  with  these  special  rules,  shall 
apply  to  medal  play. 


173  Golf 


CHAPTER  IX 

etiquette  of  golf 

The  following  customs  belong  to  the  estab- 
lished Etiquette  of  Golf  and  should  be 
observed  by  all  golfers. 

1.  No  player,  caddie  or  onlooker  should  move 
or  talk  during  a  stroke. 

2.  No  player  should  play  from  the  tee  until  the 
party  in  front  have  played  their  second  strokes 
and  are  out  of  range,  nor  play  to  the  putting- 
green  till  the  party  in  front  have  holed  out  and 
moved  away. 

3.  The  player  who  leads  from  the  tee  should  be 
allowed  to  play  before  his  opponent  tees  his  ball. 

I.  Players  who  have  holed  out  should  not  try 
their  put  Is  over  again  when  other  players  are 
following  them. 

5.  Players  looking  for  a  lost  ball  must  allow 
any  oilier  match  coming  up  to  puss  them. 

0.  A  party  playing  three  or  more  balls  must 
allow  a,  two-ball  match  to  pass  them. 


etiquette  of  Golf  173 

7.  A  party  playing  a  shorter  round  must  allow 
a  two-ball  match  playing  the  whole  round  to  pass 
them. 

8.  A  player  should  not  putt  at  the  hole  when 
the  flag  is  in  it. 

9.  The  reckoning  of  the  strokes  is  kept  by  the 
terms:  "the  odd,"  "  two  more,"  "three  more," 
etc.,  and  "one  off  three,"  "one  off  two,"  "the 
like."  The  reckoning  of  the  holes  is  kept  by  the 
terms  :  so  many  "  holes  up  " — or  "  all  even  " — and 
—so  many  "  to  play." 

10.  Turf  cut  or  displaced  by  a  stroke  in  play- 
ing  should  be  at  once  replaced. 


174  <3olt 


GLOSSARY  OF  TECHNICAL  TERMS  EM- 
PLOYED IN  THE  GAME  OF  GOLF 

Addressing  the  ball.     Putting  one's  self  in  position  to 

strike  the  ball. 
Approach.     When  the  player  is  sufficiently  near  the  hole 

to  be  able  to  drive  the  ball  to  the  putting-green  his  stroke 

is  called  the  "  approach-shot." 
Baff.     To  strike  the  ground  with  the  "  sole"  of  the  club- 
head  in  playing,  and  so  send  ball  in  air. 
Bafiy.     A  wooden  club  to  play  lofting  shots. 
Bent.     Rush,  bent-grass. 
Bogey.     Usually  given  the  title  of  Colonel.     A  phantom 

who  is  credited  with  a  certain  score  for  each  hole,  against 

which  score  each  player  is  competing. 
Bone.     A  piece  of  rain's  horn  inserted  in  the  sole  of  the 

club  to  prevent  it  from  splitting. 
Brassy.     A  wooden  club  with  a  brass  sole. 
Break-club.     An   obstacle  lying  near  a  ball  of  such  a 

nature  as    might  break    the  club  when  striking  at   the 

ball. 
Bulger.     A  dub  with  a  convex  face. 
Bunker.    Generally  any  rough,  hazardous  ground — more 

st  ricl  ly .  a  sand-pit. 
Bye.     Any  bole  or  holes  thai  renin  in  to  be  played  after  the 

match  is  finished.     They  are  played  for  singly;   unless 

the  sides  agree  to  make  another  match  of  them. 
Caddio.     A  person  who  carries  the  golfer's  clubs,  and  who 

can  usually  give  him  advice  in  regard  to  the  game. 
Clock.     An    iron-headed   olub    of    considerable    driving 

power  and  sometimes  used  for  putting. 


Glossary  175 

Club.  The  implement  with  which  the  ball  is  struck.  The 
heads  are  of  three  kinds — wood,  wood  with  a  brass  sole, 
and  iron  only. 

Course.  That  portion  of  the  Links  on  which  the  game 
ought  to  be  played,  generally  bounded  on  either  side  by 
rough  ground  or  other  hazard. 

Cup.  A  small  hole  in  the  course,  usually  one  made  by  the 
stroke  of  some  previous  player. 

Dead.  A  ball  is  said  to  be  "  dead  "  when  it  lies  so  near 
the  hole  that  the  "  putt"  is  a  dead  certainty.  A  ball  is 
said  to  fall  ' '  dead  "  when  it  does  not  run  after  alight- 
ing. 

Dormy.  One  side  is  said  to  be  "dormy"  when  it  is  as 
many  holes  ahead  as  there  remain  holes  to  play.  (This 
word  is  probably  derived  from  the  French,  like  many 
Scottish  terms.) 

Draw.  To  drive  widely  to  the  left  hand.  (Identical  in 
its  results  with  Hookfand  Screw. 

Driver.     See  Play-Club. 

Face.  First,  the  slope  of  a  bunker  or  hillock  ;  second,  the 
part  of  the  club-head  which  strikes  the  ball. 

Flat.  A  club  is  said  to  be  "flat"  when  its  head  is  at  a 
very  obtuse  angle  to  the  shaft. 

Fog.     Moss,  rank  grass. 

Fore  !  A  warning  cry  to  any  person  in  the  way  of  the 
stroke.     (Contracted  from  "before.") 

Foursome.     A  match  in  which  two  play  on  each  side. 

Gobble.  A  rapid  straight  "putt"  into  the  hole,  such 
that,  had  the  ball  not  gone  in,  it  would  have  gone  some 
distance  beyond. 

Grassed.  Said  of  a  club  whose  face  is  slightly  "  spooned  " 
or  sloped  backward. 

Green.  First,  the  whole  Links :  second,  the  putting- 
ground  around  the  different  holes. 

Grip.  First,  the  part  of  the  handle  covered  with  leather, 
by  which  the  club  is  grasped  ;  second,  the  grasp  itself. 

Half-one.  A  handicap  of  a  stroke  deducted  every  second 
hole. 


17G  <3olf 

Half-shot.     Less  than  a  full  swing. 

Halved.  A  hole  is  said  to  be  "  halved"  when  each  side 
takes  the  same  number  of  strokes.  A  "  halved  match  " 
is  a  "  drawn  game" — that  is,  the  players  have  proved  to 
be  equal. 

Hanging.  A  "hanging"  ball  is  one  which  lies  on  a  down- 
ward slope. 

Hazard.  A  general  term  for  bunker,  long  grass,  road, 
water,  whin,  molehill,  or  other  bad  ground. 

Head.  This  word  is  a  striking  specimen  of  incongruity 
and  mixed  metaphor.  A  head  is  the  lowest  part  of  a 
club,  and  possesses,  among  other  mysterious  character- 
istics, a  sole,  a  heel,  a  toe  or  nose,  a  neck  and  a  face  ! 

Heel.  First,  the  part  of  the  head  nearest  the  shaft ;  second, 
to  hit  from  this  part,  and  send  the  ball  to  the  right  hand. 

Hole.  First,  the  four-inch  hole  lined  with  iron  ;  the  holes 
going  out  are  marked  with  white,  and  those  coming  in 
with  red  Hags.  Second,  the  whole  space  between  any 
two  of  these. 

Honor.     The  right  to  play  off  first  from  the  tee. 

Hook.    See  Draw. 

Hose.  The  socket,  in  iron-headed  clubs,  into  which  the 
wooden  shaft  fits. 

Iron.  A  Hid.  made  <>f  the  material  its  name  implies,  with 
the  head  more  or  less  laid  back  to  loft  a  hall.  A  most 
deadly  weapon  in  a  good  player's  hands. 

Jerk.  In  "  jerking."  the  club  should  Btrike  with  a  quick 
cut  behind  the  ball,  and  stop  on  reaching  the  ground. 

Lie.  First,  the  inclination  of  a,  club  when  held  on  the 
-round  in  a  natural  position  for  striking;  second,  the 
situation  of  a  hall,  good  <>r  bad. 

Like.    See  under  Odds. 

Like-as-wo-lio.  When  both  sides  have  played  the  same 
number  of  st  rokes. 

Links.     The  open  downs  or  heath  on  which  golf  is  played. 

Loft.    To  elevate  the  ball. 

Long  odds.     When  a  player  has  to  play  a  stroke  more 


Glossary  177 

than  his  adversary,  who  is    much   further  on — that  is, 
nearer  the  hole. 
Made.     A  player,  or  his  ball,  is  said  to  be  "  made"  when 
his  ball  is  sufficiently  near  the  hole  to  be  played  on   to 
the  putting-green  next  shot. 

Mashie.  A  club  which,  both  in  its  make  and  its  uses,  is 
a  compromise  between  the  niblick  and  the  iron. 

Match.  First,  the  sides  playing  against  each  other; 
second,  the  game  itself. 

Miss  the  globe.  To  fail  to  strike  the  ball,  either  by 
swinging  right  over  the  top  of  it,  or  by  hitting  the 
ground  behind  it,  is  counted  a  stroke. 

Neck.     The  crook  of  the  head  where  it  joins  the  shaft. 

Niblick.  A  small,  narrow-headed,  heavy  iron  club,  used 
when  the  ball  lies  in  bad  places,  as  ruts  or  whins,  etc. 

Nose.     The  point  or  front  portion  of  the  club-head. 

Odds.  First,  means  the  handicap  given  by  a  strong  player 
to  a  weaker  in  a  single  match,  consisting  of  either  one, 
two,  three  or  more  holes  to  start  with  or  one  stroke  per 
hole,  or  every  alternate  hole,  or  at  every  third  hole,  etc.  ; 
second,  to  have  played  ';  the  odds  "  is  to  have  played  one 
stroke  more  than  your  adversary.  Some  other  terms 
used  in  counting  the  game  will  be  most  easily  explained 
here  all  together.  If  your  opponent  has  played  one 
stroke  more  than  you — that  is,  "the  odds"— your  next 
stroke  will  be  "  the  like  ; "  if  two  strokes  more— that  is, 
"  the  two  more  " — your  next  stroke  will  be  :'  the  one  off 
two  ;"  if  "  three  more,"  "  the  one  off  three,"  and  so 
on. 

One-off-two,  One-ofF-three,  etc.     See  under  Odds. 

Play-club.  A  wooden-headed  club,  with  full-length  shaft, 
more  or  less  supple  :  with  it  the  ball  can  be  driven  to  the 
greatest  distance.     It  is  used  when  the  ball  lies  well. 

Press.  To  strive  to  recover  lost  ground  by  special  hard 
hitting — a  very  dangerous  thing  to  attempt. 

Putt.    To  play  the  delicate  game  close  to  the  hole.     (Pro- 
nounce u  as  in  but.) 
12 


178  Oolf 

Putter.  An  upright,  stiff-shafted,  wooden-headed  club 
(some  use  iron  heads),  used  when  the  ball  is  on  the  put- 
ting-green. 

Rind.  A  strip  of  cloth  under  the  leather  to  thicken  the 
grip. 

Rub  on  the  green.  A  favorable  or  unfavorable  knock 
to  the  ball,  for  which  no  penalty  is  imposed,  and  which 
must  be  submitted  to. 

Scare.  The  narrow  part  of  the  club-head  by  which  it  is 
glued  to  the  handle. 

SclafF.  When  the  club-head  strikes  the  ground  behind 
the  ball,  and  follows  on  with  a  ricochet. 

Screw.    See  Draw. 

Scrufl.     Slightly  razing  the  grass  in  striking. 

Set.     A  full  complement  of  clubs. 

Shaft.     The  stick  or  handle  of  the  club. 

Sole.     The  flat  bottom  of  the  club-head. 

Spoons.  Wooden-headed  clubs  of  three  lengths — long, 
middle  and  short  :  the  head  is  scooped,  so  as  to  loft  the 
ball. 

Spring.    The  degree  of  suppleness  in  the  shaft. 

Square.  When  the  game  stands  evenly  balanced,  neither 
side  being  any  holes  ahead. 

Stance.  The  position  of  the  player's  feet  when  address- 
ing himself  to  the  ball. 

Steal.     To  hold  an   unlikely   "putt"  from  a   distance,  but 

not  by  a  "  gobble." 

Stroke.    The  act  of  hitting  the  ball  with  the  club,  or  the 

attempt  to  do  so. 

Stymie.     When   yum-  opponent's  ball  lies  in  the  line  of 

your  "  putt." 
Swing.    The  sweep  of  the  Hub  in  driving. 
Swipo.    A  full  driving  stroke. 
Toe.    The  pat  of  sand  on  which  the  ball  is  placed  for  the 

first  >-t roke  each  h<>]<'. 

Third.     A  handicap  of  a  stroke  deducted  every  third  hole. 


Glossary  179 

Toe.     Another  name  for  the  nose  of  the  club 
Top.     To  bit  the  ball  above  its  center. 
Two-more,  Three-more,  etc.    See  under  Odds. 
Upright.     A  club  is  said  to  be  "upright  "  when  its  head 

is  not  at  a  very  obtuse  angle  to  the  shaft. 
Whins.     Furze  or  gorse. 
Whipping.     The   pitched  twine  uniting  the    head   and 

handle. 
Wrist  Shot.     Less  than  half  a  shot,  generally  played  with 

an  iron  club. 


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ETIQUETTE  There  is  no  passport  to  good  society 
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possess  wealth  and  intelligence,  his  suc- 
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LETTER  WRITING     Why  do  most   persons  dislike  to 
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they  cannot  say  the  right  thing  in 
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QUOTATIONS  A  clever  compilation  of  pithy  quota- 
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are  credited  to  their  original  sources. 

S 


EPITAPHS  Even  death  has  its   humorous  sida. 

By  Frederic  W.  Unger  fl  There  are  said  to  be  "  sermons  in 
stones,"  but  when  they  are  tombstones 
there  is  many  a  smile  mixed  with  the  moral.  ^  Usually 
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PI^OVEI^BS  The  genius,  wit,  and  spirit  of  a  nation 
By  John  H.  Bechtel  are  discovered  in  its  proverbs,  and  the 
condensed  wisdom  of  all  ages  and  all 
nations  is  embodied  in  them.  €J  A  good  proverb  that  fits 
the  case  is  often  a  convincing  argument.  ^  This  volume 
contains  a  representative  collection  of  proverbs,  old  and  new, 
and  the  indexes,  topical  and  alphabetical,  enable  one  to  find 
readily  jus!  what  he  requires. 

THINGS  WORTH     Can  you  name  the  coldest  place  m 
KNOWING  the  United  States  or  teli  what  year 

By  John  H.  Bechtel  nad   445    days?     Do   you    know 

how  soon  the  coal  fields  of  the 
world  are  likely  to  be  exhausted,  or  how  the  speed  of  a 
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sands of  just  such  interesting  and  useful  questions. 

3 


A  DICTIONARY  OF    Most  of  us  dislike  to  look  up  i 

MYTHOLOGY  mythological    subject   because 

By  John  H.  Bechtel  or"    tne    nme   required.  €$  Thk 

book  remedies  that  difficulty 
because  in  it  can  be  found  at  a  glance  jus!  what  is  wanted. 
•I  It  is  comprehensive,  convenient,  condensed,  and  the  infor- 
mation is  presented  in  such  an  interesting  manner  that  when 
once  read  it  will  always  be  remembered.  ^  A  distinctive 
feature  of  the  book  is  the  pronunciation  of  the  proper  names, 
something  found  in  few  other  works. 

SLIPS  OF  SPEECH     Who    does    not    make    them? 
By  John  H.  Bechtel  The  best  of  us  do.  <J  Why  not 

avoid  them  ?  Any  one  inspired 
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HANDBOOK  OF  What  is  more   disagreeable 

PRONUNCIATION     *nan    a    faulty    pronunciation? 
By  John  H.  Bechtel  No    other    de(e(5t    «o  clearly 

shows  a  lack  of  culture.  ^  This 
book  contains  over  5,000  words  on  which  most  of  us  are 
apt  to  trip.  ^  They  are  here  pronounced  in  the  clearest  and 
simplest  manner,  and  according  to  the  best  authority  *J  It 
is  more  readily  consulted  than  a  dictionary,  and  is  just  as 
reliable. 


PRACTICAL  A  new  word  is  a  new  tool.   *J  This 

SYNONYMS  book  will  not  only  enlarge  your  vocabu- 
By  John  H.  Bechtel  lary»  but  will  show  you  how  to  express 
the  exact  shade  of  meaning  you  have 
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READY  MADE  SPEECHES      Pretty  much  everybody 
By  George  Hapgood,  Esq.  in   these    latter  days,  is 

now  and  again  called 
upon  "to  say  a  few  words  in  public."  ^  Unfortunately, 
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and  graceful  speech.  ^  This  is  a  book  of  carefully  planned 
model  speeches  to  aid  those  who,  without  some  slight  help, 
must  remain  silent,  fl  There  is  a  preliminary  chapter  of  gen- 
eral advice  to  speakers. 


A  FT  El^- DINNER     The  dinner  itself  may  be  ever   so 
STORIES  good,  and  yet  prove  a  failure  if  there 

By  John  Harrison  is  no  mirtn  to  enliven  the  company. 

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anyone  can  tell  them  successfully.  C|  There  are  also  a 
number  of  lelected  toasts  suitable  to  all  occasion*. 

5 


TOASTS  Most  men  dread  being  called  upon  to 

By  William  Pittenger  respond  to  a  toast  or  to  make  an  ad- 
dress. 1$  What  would  you  not  give  fot 
the  ability  to  be  rid  of  this  embarrassment  ?  No  Aeed  to 
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the  novice,  but  to  the  experienced  speaker,  who  will  gather 
from  it  many  suggestions. 


THE  DEBATER'S       There   is   no   greater   ability  than 
TREASURY  the  power  of   skillful  and  forcible 

By  William  Pittenger  debate,    and    no    accomplishment 

more  readily  acquired  if  the  person 
is  properly  directed.  ^  In  this  little  volume  are  directions  for 
organizing  and  conducting  debating  societies  and  practical 
suggestions  for  all  who  desire  to  discuss  questions  in  public. 
•j  There  is  also  a  list  of  over  200  questions  for  debate,  vrith 
arguments  both  affirmative  and  negative. 

PUNCTUATION       Few  persons  can  punctuate  properly  ; 
By  Paul  Allardycc  to  avoid  mistakes  many  dc  not  punctu- 

ate at  all.  €J  A  perusal  of  this  book 
will  remove  all  difficulties  and  make  all  points  clear.  C|  The 
rules  are  plainly  stated  and  freely  illustrated,  thus  furnishing 
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nized as  the  leading  authority  upon  the  subject,  and  what 
he  has  to  say  is  practical,  concise,  and  comprehensive. 

t 


ORATORY  Few  men  ever  enjoyed  a  wider  ex- 

By  Henry  Ward  Beecher  perience  or  achieved  a  higher  repu- 
tation in  public  speaking  than  Mr. 
Beecher.  1$  What  he  had  to  say  on  this  subject  was  born 
of  experience,  and  his  own  inimitable  style  was  at  once  both 
statement  and  illustration  of  his  theme.  €J  This  volume  is  a 
unique  and  masterly  treatise  on  the  fundamental  principles  of 
true  oratory. 

CONVERSATION      Some  people  are  accused  of  talking 
By  J.  P.  Mahaffy  too   much.     But   no   one   is  ever 

taken  to  task  for  talking  too  well. 
^  Of  all  the  accomplishments  of  modern  society,  that  of 
being  an  agreeable  conversationalist  holds  first  place. 
Nothing  is  more  delightful  or  valuable.  ^  To  suggest  what 
to  say,  just  how  and  when  to  say  it,  is  the  general  aim  of 
this  work,  and  it  succeeds  most  admirably  in  its  purpose. 

READING  The   ability  to   read  aloud  well, 

AS  A  FINE  ART      whether  at  the  fireside  or  on  the 
By  Ernest  Legouve  public    platform,    is    a    fine   art. 

^  The  directions  and  suggestions 
contained  in  this  work  of  standard  authority  will  go  far 
toward  the  attainment  of  this  charming  accomplishment. 
^  The  work  is  especially  recommended  to  teachers  and 
•thers  interested  in  the  instruction  of  public  school  pupils. 

7 


SOCIALISM  Socialism  is  "in  the  air."  fl  Reference! 

By  Charles  H.  Olin  to  the  subject  are  constantly  appearing 
in  newspapers,  magazines,  and  other 
publications.  ^J  But  few  persons  except  the  socialists  them- 
selves have  more  than  a  dim  comprehension  of  what  it  really 
means.  CJ  This  book  gives  in  a  clear  and  interesting  manner 
a  complete  idea  of  the  economic  doctrines  taught  by  the  best 
socialists. 

JOURNALISM  What  is  news,  how  is  it  obtained,  how 
By  Charles  H.  Olin  handled,  and  how  can  one  become  a 
Journalist?  <J  These  questions  are  all 
answered  in  this  book,  and  detailed  instructions  are  given  for 
obtaining  a  position  and  writing  up  all  kinds  of  "assign- 
ments." CJ  It  shows  what  to  avoid  and  what  to  cultivate, 
and  contains  chapters  on  book  reviewing,  dramatic  criticism 
and  proofreading. 

VENTRILOQUISM      Although  always  a  delightful  form 
By  Charles  H.  Olin  of  entertainment,  Ventriloquism  is 

to  most  of  us  more  or  less  of  a 
mystery  €J  It  need  be  so  no  longer.  €J  This  book  exposes 
the  secrets  of  the  art  completely,  and  shows  how  almost 
anyone  may  learn  to  "  throw  the  voice  "  both  near  and  far. 
*I  Directions  for  the  construction  of  automatons  are  given 
as  well  as  good  dialogue  for  their  successful  operation. 
q  Fully  illustrated. 


CONUNDRUMS      Conundrums   sharpen    our   wits    and 
By  Dean  Rivers  lead  us  to  think  quickly.  ^  They  are 

also  a  source  of  infinite  amusement 
and  pleasure,  whiling  away  tedious  hours  and  putting  every- 
one in  good  humor.  €|  This  book  contains  an  excellent  col- 
lection of  over  a  thousand  of  the  latest,  brightest,  and  most 
up-to-date  conundrums,  to  which  are  added  many  Biblical, 
poetical,  and  French  conundrums. 

MAGIC  There  is  no  more  delightful  form  of  enter- 

By  Ellis  Stanyon  tainment  than  that  afforded  by  the  per- 
formances of  a  magician.  1$  Mysterious  as 
these  performances  appear,  they  may  be  very  readily  learned 
if  carefully  explained.  ^  This  book  embraces  full  and 
detailed  descriptions  of  all  the  well  known  tricks  with  coins, 
handkerchiefs,  hats,  flowers,  and  cards,  together  with  a 
number  of  novelties  not  previously  produced  or  explained. 
if  Fully  illustrated. 

HYPNOTISM  There  is  no  more  popular  or 

By  Edward  H.  Eldridge,  A.  M.  interesting  form  of  entertain- 
ment than  hypnotic  exhibitions, 
and  everyone  would  like  to  know  how  to  hypnotize.  ^  By 
following  the  simple  and  concise  instructions  contained  in  this 
complete  manual  anyone  may,  with  a  little  practice,  readily 
learn  how  to  exercise  this  unique  and  strange  power. 

9 


WHIST  "According    to    Cavendish"   is    now 

By  Cavendish  almost   as   familiar   an    expression    as 

Twenty-third  Edition  "  according  to  Hoyle."  *i  No  whist 
player,  whether  a  ncvice  or  an  expert, 
can  afford  to  be  without  the  aid  and  support  of  Cavendish. 
No  household  in  which  the  game  is  played  is  complete 
without  a  copy  of  this  book.  ^  This  edition  contains  all  of 
the  matter  found  in  the  English  publication  and  at  one-fourth 
the  cost. 


PARLOR  GAMES      "What  shall  we  do  to  amuse  our- 
By  Helen  E.  Hollister  selves  and  our  friends?"  is  a  ques- 

tion frequently  propounded  on  rainy 
days  and  long  winter  evenings.  ^  This  volume  most  happily 
answers  this  question,  as  it  contains  a  splendid  collection  of 
all  kinds  of  games  for  amusement,  entertainment,  and  instruc- 
tion. €J  The  games  are  adapted  to  both  old  and  young,  and 
all  classes  will  find  them  both  profitable  and  interesting. 


ASTRONOMY :  Can  you  tell  what  causes 

The  Sun  and  His  Family      day  and    night,   seasons 

By  Julia  MacNair  Wright  and   years,   tides   and 

eclipses?  Why  is  the 
sky  blue  and  Mars  red  ?  What  are  meteors  and  shooting 
stars  ?  <J  These  and  a  thousand  other  questions  are  answered 
in  a  most  fascinating  way  in  this  highly  interesting  volume. 
Few  books  contain  as  much  valuable  material  so  pleasantly 
packed  in  so  small  a  space.  ^  Illustrated. 

10 


BOTANY  :  The  scientific  study  of 

The  Story  of  Plant  Life     Botany  made  as  »ntere&- 

By  Julia  MacNair  Wright  in§  as  a  faiJ7  talf  •  9  II  ■ 

better  reading  than  such 

tales,  because  of  the  profit.  €J  Each  chapter  is  devoted  to 

the  month  of  the  year  in  which  plants  of  that  month  are  in 

evidence.     Not  only  is  the  subject  treated  with  accuracy, 

but  there  is  given  much  practical  information  as  to  the  care 

and  treatment  of  plants  and  flowers.  ^  Illustrated. 

FLOWERS:  Every  woman  loves  flowers, 

HOW  to  GrOW  Them       Dut  *ew  succeed  in  growing 

By  Eben  E.  Rexford  tnem-     Witn.  tne    nelP    so 

clearly  given  in  this  book  no 
one  need  fail.  ^  It  treats  mainly  of  indoor  flowers  and  plants 
■ — those  for  window  gardening ;  all  about  their  selection,  care, 
soil,  air,  light,  warmth,  etc.  <J  The  chapter  on  table  decora- 
tion alone  is  worth  the  price  of  the  book.  ^  While  the  sub- 
ject of  flowers  is  quite  thoroughly  covered,  the  Style  used  is 
plain,  simple,  and  free  from  all  technicalities. 

DANCING  A  complete  instructor,  beginning  with 

By  Marguerite  Wilson  the  first  positions  and  steps  and  leading 
up  to  the  square  and  round  dances. 
C[  It  contains  a  full  list  of  calls  for  all  of  the  square  dances, 
and  the  appropriate  music  for  each  figure,  the  etiquette  of 
the  dances,  and  1  00  figures  for  the  german.  ^  It  is  unusu- 
ally well  illustrated  by  a  large  number  of  original  drawings. 
^  Without  doubt  the  best  book  on  the  subject. 

II 


ASTROLOGY  If  you  wish  to  obtain  a  horoscope  of 
By  M.  M.  Macgregor  your  entire  life,  or  if  you  would  like  to 
know  in  what  business  or  profession  you 
will  best  succeed,  what  friends  you  should  make,  whom  you 
should  marry,  the  kind  of  a  person  to  choose  for  a  business 
partner,  or  the  time  of  the  month  in  which  to  begin  an 
enterprise,  you  will  find  these  and  hundreds  of  other  vital 
questions  solved  in  this  book  by  the  science  of  Astrology. 

PHYSIOGNOMY      How  can  we  judge  whether  a  man 
By  Leila  Lomax  may  be  trusted  to  handle  money  for 

us?  ^  How  can  a  woman  analyze 
a  man  who  would  marry  her  ?  ^  Partly  by  words,  partly 
by  voice,  partly  by  reputation,  but  more  than  all  by  looks — 
the  shape  of  the  head,  the  set  of  the  jaw,  the  line  of  the 
mouth,  the  glance  of  the  eye.  CJ  Physiognomy  as  explained 
in  this  book  shows  clearly  how  to  read  character  with  every 
point  explained  by  illustrations  and  photographs. 

GRAPHOLOGY  :  Do  you  know  that  ev«ry 

How  to  Read  Character      time  you  write   five  or 
from  Handwriting  six  lines  y°u  *™*  a 

By  Clifford  Howard  complete  record  of  your 

character?  Anyone  who 
understands  Graphology  can  tell  by  simply  examining  your 
handwriting  just  what  sort  of  a  person  you  are.  ^  There  is 
no  method  of  character  reading  that  is  more  interring,  more 
trustworthy,  and  more  valuable  than  that  of  Graphology, 
and  it  is  the  aim  of  this  volume  to  enable  anyone  to  become 
a  master  of  this  most  fascinating  art. 

12 


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